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diff --git a/43450.txt b/43450.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 06bf38f..0000000 --- a/43450.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12416 +0,0 @@ - THE SETTLER - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: The Settler -Author: Herman Whitaker -Release Date: September 14, 2013 [EBook #43450] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SETTLER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - -[Illustration: The Settler] - - - - - THE SETTLER - - - BY - - HERMAN WHITAKER - - AUTHOR OF - "THE MYSTERY OF THE BARRANCA" - "THE PLANTER" ETC. - - - - HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS - NEW YORK AND LONDON - - - - [Illustration: Title page] - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY HARPER & BROTHERS - - PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - - TO - ALYSE - - - - - *CONTENTS* - - -CHAP. - - I. The Park Lands - II. A Deputation - III. The Trail - IV. The Coyote Snaps - V. Jenny - VI. The Shadow - VII. Mr. Flynn Steps into the Breach - VIII. When April Smiled Again - IX. The Devil - X. Friction - XI. The Frost - XII. The Break - XIII. The Camp - XIV. The Red Teamster - XV. Travail - XVI. A House-party - XVII. --And Its Finale - XVIII. The Persistence of the Established - XIX. The Wages of Sin - XX. --Is Death - XXI. Persecution - XXII. Denunciation - XXIII. The Charivari - XXIV. Without the Pale - XXV. The Sunken Grade - XXVI. Winnipeg - XXVII. The Nature of the Cinch - XXVIII. The Strike - XXIX. The Bluff - XXX. Fire - XXXI. Wherein the Fates Substitute a Change of Bill - XXXII. The Trail Again - - - - - *THE SETTLER* - - - - *I* - - *THE PARK LANDS* - - -The clip of a cutting axe flushed a heron from the bosom of a reedy lake -and sent him soaring in slow spirals until, at the zenith of his flight, -he overlooked a vast champaign. Far to the south a yellow streak marked -the scorched prairies of southern Manitoba; eastward and north a spruce -forest draped the land in a mantle of gloom; while to the west the woods -were thrown with a scattering hand over a vast expanse of rolling -prairie. These were the Park Lands of the Fertile Belt--a beautiful -country, rich, fat-soiled, rank with flowers and herbage, once the -hunting-ground of Cree and Ojibway, but now passed to the sterner race -whose lonely farmsteads were strewn over the face of the land. These -presented a deadly likeness. Each had its log-house, its huge tent of -firewood upreared against next winter's drift, and the same yellow -strawstacks dotted their fenceless fields. One other thing, too, they -had in common--though this did not lie to the eye of the heron--a -universal mortgage, legacy of the recent boom, covered all. - -At the flap of the great bird's wing a man stepped from the timber and -stood watching him soar. He was a tall fellow, lean as a greyhound, -flat-flanked, in color neither dark nor fair. His eyes were deep-set -and looked out from a face that was burned to the color of a brick. His -nose was straight and large, cheeks well hollowed; the face would have -been stern but for the humor that lurked about the mouth. Taken -together, the man was an excellent specimen of what he was--a young -American of the settler type. - -"Gone plumb out of sight," he muttered, rubbing his dazzled eyes. "An' -he wasn't no spring chicken. Time to feed, I reckon." - -A few steps carried him to his team, a rangy yoke of steers which were -tied in the shade. Having fed them, he returned to his work and chopped -steadily until, towards evening, his wagon was loaded with poplar rails. -Then hitching, he mounted his load and "hawed" and "geed" his way -through the forest. As he came out on the open prairie the metallic -rattle of a mower travelled down the wind. Stopping, he listened, while -a shadow deepened his tan. - -"Comes from Morrill's big slough," he muttered, whipping up the oxen. -"Who'll it be?" - -Morrill, his near neighbor, was sick in bed, and the rattle could only -mean that some one was trespassing on his hay rights--or rather the -privilege which he claimed as such--for trespass such as he suspected -was simply the outward sign of a change in the settlement's condition. -In the beginning the first-comers had found an abundance of natural -fodder growing in the sloughs, where, for lack of a water-shed, the -spring thaws stored flood-waters. There was plenty then for all. But -with thicker settlement anarchy ensued. New neighbors grabbed sloughs -on unsettled lands, which old-timers had sealed to themselves, and so -forced them to steal from one another. Morrill and the man on the wagon -had "hayed" together for the last three seasons, which fact explained -the significance he attached to the rattle of the alien mower. - -"It's Hines!" he muttered when, five minutes later, he sighted the mower -from the crown of a roll. "The son of a gun!" - -The man was running the first swath around a mile-long slough which lay -in the trough of two great rolls. It was a pretty piece of hay, thick, -rank, and so long that one might have tied two spears together across a -horse's back. Indeed, when the settler rattled down the bank and -stopped his oxen they were hidden to the horns, which fact accounted for -Hines not seeing them until his team brought against the load. - -"Hullo!" he cried, startled. "Didn't expect to see you, Carter!" - -"Don't reckon you did," the settler replied. The shadow was now gone -from his face. Cool, cheerful, unconcerned, he sat in the mower's path, -swinging an easy leg. - -Hines gave him an uneasy glance. "Been cutting poles?" he asked, -affecting nonchalance. - -"Yes. Corral needed raising a couple of rails," Carter carelessly -answered. - -Encouraged, Hines made an observation about the crops which the other -answered, and so the talk drifted on until Hines, feeling that he had -established a footing, said, "Well, I must be moving." But as he backed -his horses to drive around, the steers lurched forward and again blocked -the way. - -"Pretty cut of hay this." Carter ignored the other's savage glance. -"Ought to turn Morrill thirty tons, don't you reckon?" - -Hines shuffled uneasily in the mower seat. "I didn't allow," he -growled, "as Morrill would want hay this year?" - -"No?" The monosyllable was subtly sarcastic. - -Hines flushed. "What kin a dead man do with hay?" he snarled. - -"Is Morrill dead?" - -"No! But Doc Ellis tol' me at Stinkin' Water as he couldn't live -through winter." He almost yelled it; opposition was galling his savage -temper. - -"So you thought you'd beat the funeral?" Carter jeered. "Savin' man! -Well--he ain't dead yet?" - -The challenge was unmistakable. But though brutal, ferocious as a wolf, -Hines shared the animal's preferences for an easy prey. Corner him and -he would turn, snarling, but his was the temper which takes no chances -with an equal force. Now he lived up to his tradition. Viciously -setting his teeth, he awaited the other's action. - -But Carter was in no hurry. Leaning back on his load, he sprawled at -ease, turning his eyes to the fathomless vault above. Time crept on. -The oxen ceased puffing and cropped the grass about them, the horses -switched impatience of the flies. The sun dropped and hung like a split -orange athwart the horizon, the hollows blued with shadows, which -presently climbed the knolls and extinguished their golden lights. Soon -the last red ray kindled the forest, silver specks dusted the darkening -sky, only the west blushed with the afterglow. - -Hines tired first. "Quitting-time," he growled, backing his horses. - -"Took you a long time to find it out," Carter drawled, giving the words -a significance the other had not intended. "But grace is always waiting -for the sinner. So long! But say!" he called after the disappearing -figure, "if you hear any one inquiring after this slough, you can tell -them as Merrill's goin' to cut it to-morrow." - -Whipping up his oxen, he swung up the bank and headed south on Merrill's -hay trail. Fresh from their rest, the steers stepped out to a lively -rattling of chains, and in a quarter of an hour stopped of their own -volition before his cabin. - -As Carter entered, the sick man leaned on his elbow and looked up at his -magnificent inches: he loomed like a giant in the gloom of the cabin. -There was envy in the glance but no spite. It was the look the sick -bestow on the rudely healthy. For Carter's physique was a constant -reminder to Morrill of his own lost strength--he had been a college -athlete, strong and well set-up, the kind of man to whom women render -the homage of a second lingering glance. Three years ago, inherited -lung trouble had driven him from the Eastern city in which he had laid -the foundation of a pretty law practice, but the dry air and open life -of the central plains had not checked the ravages of the disease. -Still, though but the wraith of his former self, he had kept a brave -face, and now he cheerfully answered Carter's greeting. - -"Cast your eye over this," he said, holding out an open letter. "It's -from my sister Helen." - -Handling it as tenderly as though it were a feather from the wing of -love, Carter held the letter to the lamp. It was written in a small, -feminine hand which took all manner of flourishes unto itself as it ran -along the lines. Carter regarded them with a look in which surprise -struggled with respect. "Oh, shore!" he laughed at last. "Them curly -cues is mighty pretty, Bert, but it would take too long for me to cipher -'em out. What's it all about?" - -"She's coming out. Arrives in Lone Tree day after to-morrow." - -"Phew!" Carter whistled. "Short notice." - -He thoughtfully stroked his chin. Lone Tree lay sixty miles to the -south and the Eastern mail-train came in at noon. But this was not the -cause of his worry. His ponies could cover the distance within the time. -But there was Hines. If he did not try the slough, others might. -Morrill mistook his silence. - -"I hate to ask you to go," he said, hesitatingly. "You've done so much -for me." - -"Done nothing," the big man laughed. "'Twasn't that. Jes' now I warned -Hines off that big slough o' yours, an' I intended to begin cutting it -to-morrow morning." - -Morrill impulsively extended his hand. "You're a good fellow, Carter." - -"Shucks!" the other laughed. "Ain't we two the only Yanks in these -parts? But say! won't she find this a bit rough?" - -Morrill glanced discontentedly at the log walls, the soap-boxes which -served for seats, the home-made table, and the peg ladder that led to -the loft above. Three years' hard work had rubbed the romance from his -rough surroundings, but he remembered that it had once been there. "Oh, -I don't know," he answered. "She'll like it. Has all the romantic -notions about keeping home in a log-house, you see." - -"Never had 'em," the other mused, "though mebbe that was on account of -being born in one. What's bringing her out?" - -"Well, now that father's dead I'm all the kin she's got. He didn't -leave anything worth mentioning, so Helen has to choose between a place -in a store and keeping house for me. But say! your team's moving! Don't -tell her I'm sick," he called, as Carter rushed for the door. "She'd -worry, and think I was worse than I am." - -"Couldn't very well," Carter muttered, as he ran after his team. "No, -she really couldn't," he repeated, as he caught up and climbed upon his -load. "Poor chap!--An' poor little girl!" - - - - - *II* - - *A DEPUTATION* - - -Fifty miles in a day is big travel in the East, yet a team of northern -ponies will, if the load be light, run it on three legs. The fourth, -unless cinched with a kicking-strap, is likely to be in the buck-board -half the time; but if the driver is good at dodging he need not use a -strap. - -Starting next morning at sunrise, Carter ran through the settlements, -fed at the mission in the valley of the Assiniboin at noon, then, -climbing out, he rattled south through the arid plains which cumber the -earth from the river to Beaver Creek. There Vickery, the keeper of the -stopping-house, yelled to him to put in and feed. He had not seen a man -for two weeks, and his wells of speech were full to overflowing. But -Carter shook denial. Far off a dark smudge rose from under the edge of -the world--the smoke of the express, he thought. One would have -believed it within a dozen miles, yet when, an hour later, he rattled -into Lone Tree, it seemed no nearer than when first it impinged on the -quivering horizon. This appearance, however, was deceptive as the -first, for he had scarcely unhitched at the livery before an engine and -two toy cars stole out from under the smudge. - -"General manager's private car," the station agent answered Carter's -inquiry. "The old man lays over here to talk with a deputation. It's -over at the hotel now, feeding and liquoring up." - -"The old grievance?" Carter asked. - -The agent nodded. "That and others. They say we're coming their flesh -and blood. You should hear old man Cummings orate on that. And they -accuse us of exacting forty bushels of wheat out of every hundred we -tote out to the seaboard." - -"Wheat at forty-five, freight to Montreal at twenty-seven?" Carter -mused. "Don't that pretty near size it, Hooper?" - -"Is that our fault?" the agent ruffled, like an irate gobbler. "Did we -freeze their wheat? Sound grain is worth sixty-eight, and if they will -farm at the north pole they must expect to get frozen." - -"And if you will railroad at the north pole," Carter suggested, "you -ought to--" - -"Get all that's coming to us," the agent finished. "But we don't. Our -line runs through fifteen hundred miles of country that don't pay for -axle-grease. We must make running expenses, and ought to pay a -reasonable interest to our stockholders, though we haven't yet. The -settled lands have to bear hauling charges on the unsettled. But these -fellows don't see our side of it. Where would they be without the line, -anyway? Now answer me that, Carter." - -"Back East, landless, homeless, choring for sixteen a month an' board," -Carter slowly answered. "I'm not bucking your railroad, Hooper. But -here's the point--your people and the government sent out all sorts of -lying literature an' filled these fellows with the idea that they were -going to get rich quick; whereas this is a poor man's country an' will -be for a generation to come. Five generations of farmers couldn't have -built this line which one generation must pay for. There's the point. -They've clapped a mortgage an' a fifteen-hundred-mile handicap on their -future, an' the interest is going to bear their noses hard down on the -grindstone. They'll make a living, but they ain't going to have much of -a time. Their children's children will reap the profit off their -sweat." - -"No," the agent profanely agreed, "they ain't going to have a hell of a -time." Having spent his mature years in one continuous wrangle over -freights and rates, it was positively disconcerting to find a farmer who -could appreciate the necessities of railroad economics, and after a -thoughtful pause the agent said, "You ain't so slow--for a farmer." - -"Thank you," Carter gravely answered. "Some day, if I'm good, I may -rise to the heights of railroading." - -The agent grinned appreciatively. "Coming back to the deputation, these -fellows might as well tackle a grizzly as the old man. There's not -enough of you to supply grease for a freight-train's wheels." - -"Oh, I don't know," Carter gently murmured. - -Ten minutes ago the agent would have hotly proved his point; now he -replied, quite mildly: "If you think different, tag on to the -deputation. Here it comes, all het-up with wrongs and whiskey." - -"There's Bill Cummings!" Carter indicated an elderly man, very white of -beard, very red of face, and transparently innocent in expression. - -"He's bell-wether," the agent said, grinning. Then, as the approaching -locomotive blew two sharp blasts, he added, "Blamed if the old man won't -make mutton of the entire flock if they don't clear out of the way!" - -A quick scattering averted the catastrophe while increasing the heat of -the deputation. Very much disrumpled, it filed into the car, with -Carter tagging on behind. - -The general manager, who was smoking by an open window, tossed out his -cigar as he rose. Not a tall man, power yet expressed itself in every -movement of his thick-set body; it lurked in his keen gray glance; was -given off like electrical energy in his few crisp words of welcome. -From the eyes, placed well apart in the massive head, to the strong jaw -his every feature expressed his graduation in the mastership of men; -told eloquently of his wonderful record, his triumphs over man and -nature. Beginning a section hand, he had filled almost every position -in the gift of his road, driving spikes in early days with the same -expertness he now evidenced in directing its enormous affairs--the road -which had sprung from his own fertile imagination; the road which, from -nothing, he had called into being. Where others had only discerned -mountains, gulfs, canons, trackless forest, he had seen a great trunk -line with a hundred feeders--mills, mines, factories, farms, and -steamships plying to the Orient for trade. And because his was the faith -that moves mountains, the magnificent dream had taken form in wood and -iron. - -Purblind to all but their own interests, the settlers saw only the -proximate result of that mighty travail--the palace-car with its -luxurious fittings. - -"We pay for this," Carter's neighbor growled. - -"My, but I'd like his job!" another whispered. "Nothing to do but sit -there and dictate a few letters." - -A third gave the figures of the manager's salary, while a fourth added -that it was screwed out of the farmers. So they muttered their private -envy while Cummings voiced their public grievance. When surveys were -run for the trunk line, settlers had swarmed in, pre-empting land on -either side of the right of way, and when, to avoid certain engineering -problems, the surveys were shifted south, they found themselves from -fifty to sixty miles from a market. A branch had been promised-- - -"When settlement and traffic justify it." The manager cut the oration -short. - -He had listened quietly while Cummings talked of rights, lawsuits, and -government intervention; now he launched his ultimatum on the following -silence: "Gentlemen, our road is not run for fun, but profit, and though -we should very much like to accommodate you, it is impossible under the -circumstances. I am pleased to have met you, and"--the corners of the -firm mouth twitched ever so slightly--"and I shall be pleased to meet -you again when you can advance something more to our advantage than -costs and suits. I bid you good-day." - -Business-like, terse, devoid of feeling, the laconic answer acted upon -the deputation like a blow in the face. Cummings actually recoiled, and -his expression of sheep-like surprise, baffled wonder, innocent anger -set Carter chuckling. He was still smiling as he shouldered forward. - -"A minute, please." - -The manager glanced at his watch. "I can't spare you much more." - -"I won't need it," Carter answered, and so took up the case. - -Humorously allowing that Cummings had stepped off with the wrong foot, -that he and his fellows had no case in law, Carter went on, in short, -crisp sentences, to give the number of settlers on the old survey, the -acreage under cultivation and of newly broken ground, the lumbering -outlook in the spruce forests north of the Park Lands, the number of -tye-camps already there established, finishing with a brief description -of the rich cattle country the proposed line would tap. - -Ten minutes had added themselves to the first while he was talking, but -the manager's gray glance had evinced no impatience. "Now," he -commented, "we have something to go on. The settlements alone would not -justify us in building, but with the lumber--and colonization -prospects--" He mused a while, then, after expressing regrets for the -haste that called him away, he said, "But if you will put all this and -other information into writing, Mr. Carter, I'll see what we can do." - -"He's big, the old man." Nodding at the black trail of smoke, the agent -thus commented on his superior five minutes later. Then, indicating the -deputation which was making its jubilant way back to the clapboard -hotel, he said, "They ain't giving you all the credit, are they?" - -Shrugging at the last remark, Carter answered the first. "He's a big -man, shorely. But, bless you"--he flipped a thumb at the -delegation--"they don't see it. Any of 'em is willing to allow that the -manager has had chances that didn't fly by his particular roost--just as -though the same opportunity hadn't been tweaking him by the nose this -last twenty years. There it lay, loose, loose enough for people to -break their shins on, till this particular man picked it up. He's big. -Puts me in mind of them robber barons you read of in history. Big, -powerful chaps, who trod down everything that came in their own way -while dealing out a rough sort of justice. There's a crowd"--he looked -at the agent interrogatively--"that haven't had what's coming to them. -In their times moral suasion, as the parsons call it, hadn't been -invented and folks were a heap blooded. A little bleeding once in a -while kept down the temperature, and I've always allowed that the barons -prevented a sight more murder than they did." Then, nailing his point, -he finished: "The historians fixed a cold deck for them like the one -they'll deal this general manager. But you can't stop the world. She -waggles in spite of them, and it's the big men that make her go. But -there! I must eat. What does your ticker say of the express?" - -"Half an hour late. You'll just have nice time." And as he watched the -tall figure swinging across the tracks, the agent gave words to a -thought that was even then in the general manager's mind--"There's a -division superintendent going to seed on a farm." - -Having made up ten minutes, however, the train rolled in while Carter -was still at dinner, and as--for some motive too subtle for even his own -definition--he had not mentioned her coming, Miss Helen Morrill had -become a subject of bashful curiosity to assembled Lone Tree before he -came dashing across the tracks. Apart from his size, sunburn, and -certain intelligence of expression, there was really nothing to -distinguish this particular young man from the people who, at home, were -not on her visiting-list, and if polite the girl turned rather a cold -ear to a magnificently evolved and smoothly told set of lies as he -escorted her over to the hotel. Morrill was busy with the hay, and as -he, Carter, had to come to town for a mower casting he had agreed to -bring her out. Her brother was well! A bit delicate! He dare not -raise her hopes too high. Oh, he'd pull through! This clear northern -air--and so forth. - -That clear northern air! Glowing with color, infinite, flat, the -prairies basked under the afternoon sun. From the car windows the girl -had seen them unfolding: the great screeds of God on which he had -written his wonders. Now nothing interposed between her and their vast -expanse. Swimming in lambent light they reached out through the -quivering distance till merged with the turquoise sky. After she had -dined, Carter showed her, from the hotel veranda, the train from which -she had dismounted, no larger than a toy, puffing defiance at a receding -horizon. Other things he told her--curious facts, strange happenings -drawled forth easily with touches of humor that kept her interested and -laughing. Not until the moon's magic translated the prairie's golden -sheen to ashes, and she unconsciously offered her hand as she rose to -retire, did she realize how completely she had cancelled her first -impression. - -It was then that Lone Tree closed in on Carter with invitations to drink -and requests for verification of a theory that the northern settlement -was spreading itself on educational lines. "She's a right smart-looking -girl," said the store-keeper, its principal exponent, "and Silver Creek -is surely going to turn out some scholars." - -But he clucked his sympathy when he heard the truth. "An' you say he's -having hemerrages? Shore, shore! Here, come over to the store. That -girl don't look like she'd been raised on sow-belly, an' sick folks is -mighty picky in their eating." - -So, by moonlight, the buck-board was loaded up with jams, jellies, -fruits, and meats, the best in stock and of fabulous value at frontier -prices. While the evil deed was being perpetrated neither man looked at -the other. The store-keeper cloaked his villany by learned discourse of -freight rates, while Carter spoke indifferently of crops. Only the -parting hand-shake revealed each conspirator to the other. - - - - - *III* - - *THE TRAIL* - - -"To make Flynn's for noon," Carter had said the preceding evening, "we -shall have to be early on the trail." And there was approbation in his -glance when he found Helen Morrill waiting upon the veranda. - -"What pretty ponies!" she exclaimed, quickly adding, "Are they--tame?" - -"Regular sheep," he reassured her. - -However, she still dubiously eyed the "sheep," which were pawing the -high heavens in beliance of their pacific character, until, catching the -humorous twinkle in Carter's eye, she saw that he was gauging her -courage. Then she stepped in. As they felt her weight the ponies -plunged out and raced off down the trail; but Carter's arm eased her -back to her seat, and when, flushed and just a little trembling, she was -able to look back Lone Tree lay far behind, its grain-sheds looking for -all the world like red Noah's arks on a yellow carpet. Over them, but -beyond the horizon, hung a black smudge, mark of a distant -freight-train. Wondering if one ever lost sight of things in this -country of distances, she turned back to the ponies, which had now found -a legitimate outlet for their energies, and were knocking off the miles -at ten to the hour. - -Carter drew a loose rein, but she noticed that even when talking he kept -the team in the tail of his eye. - -"Yes," he answered her question, "that Devil horse will bear watching, -and Death, the mare, is just about as sudden. Why did I name her that?" -He twinkled down upon her. "You mightn't feel complimented if I told." - -"Well--if I must," he drawled when she pressed the question. "You see -there's two things that can get away with a right smart man--death and -woman. So, being a female--there! I told you that you wouldn't be -complimented." - -"Oh, I don't mind," she laughed. "Like curses, slights on my sex come -home to roost, Mr. Carter. You are not dead yet." - -"Nor married," he retorted. - -This morning they had taken up their acquaintanceship where it was laid -down the night before, but now something in his manner--it was not -freedom; assurance would better describe it--caused a reversion to her -first coldness. - -"Doubtless," she said, with condescension, "some good girl will take -pity on you." - -He looked squarely in her eyes. "Mebbe--though the country isn't -overstocked. Still, they've been coming in some of late." - -The suddenness of it made her gasp. How dare he? Even if he had been a -man of her own station! Turning, she looked off and away, giving him a -cold, if pretty, shoulder, till instinct told her that he was making -good use of his opportunities. But when she turned back he was -discreetly eying the ponies, apparently lost in thought. - -His preoccupation permitted minute study, and in five minutes she had -memorized his every feature, from the clean profile to the strong chin -and humorous mouth. A clean, wholesome face she thought it. She failed, -however, to classify him for, despite his homely speech, he simply would -not fit in with the butchers, bakers, and candle-stick makers of her -limited experience. One thing she felt, and that very vividly: he was -not to be snubbed or slighted. So-- - -"Do we follow the railroad much farther?" she asked. - -"A smart mile," he answered. Then, with a sidelong glance at the space -between them, he added, "I wouldn't sit on the rail." - -"Thank you," she said, coldly. "I'm quite comfortable." - -"Tastes differ," he genially commented. Then, stretching his whip, he -added, "See that wolf!" - -In a flash she abolished the space. "Oh, where? Will he--follow us?" - -"Mebbe not," he said, adding, as he noticed a disposition on her part to -edge out, "But he shorely looks hungry." - -It was only a coyote, and afterwards she could never recall the episode -without a blush, but the fact remains that while the grizzled apparition -crowned a roll, she threw dignity overboard and clung to Carter. It was -well, too, that she did, for more from deviltry than fear of the gray -shadow the ponies just then bolted. - -Ensued a minute of dust, wind, bumpings; then, without any attempt to -check their speed, Carter got the mad little brutes back to the trail. -Several furious miles had passed before, answering a gasping question as -to whether he couldn't stop them, that imperturbable driver said: - -"I ain't trying very hard. They're going our way, and we've got to hit -this trail some licks to make Flynn's by noon. He's the first settler -north of the valley." - -They did hit it some "licks." One after another the yellow miles slid -beneath the buck-board, deadly in their sameness. With the exception of -that lone coyote, they saw no life. Right and left the tawny prairies -reached out to the indefinite horizon; neither cabin nor farmstead broke -their sweep; save where the dark growths of the Assiniboin Valley drew a -dull line to the north, no spot of color marred that great monochrome. -Just before they came to the valley Carter dashed around the Red River -cart of a Cree squaw. Shortly after they came on her lord driving -industrious heels into the ribs of a ragged pony. Then the trail shot -through a bluff--rugged, riven, buttressed with tall headlands to whose -scarred sides dark woods clung, the mile-wide valley lay before them. -Up from its depths rose the cry of a bell. Clear, silvery, resonant, it -flowed with the stream, echoed in dark ravines, filled the air with its -rippling music. - -"Catholic mission," Carter said, and as he spoke the ponies plunged -after the trail which fell at an angle of forty-five into a black -ravine. The girl felt as though the earth had dropped from under, then, -bump! the wheels struck and went slithering and ricochetting among the -ruts and bowlders. A furious burst down the last slopes and they were -galloping out on the bottom-lands. - -"Oh!" she exclaimed, regaining breath. "What recklessness!" - -"Now do you really call that reckless?" His mild surprise would have -been convincing but for the wicked twinkle. - -"Of course--I do," she said, choking with fright and indignation. "I -believe--you did it on purpose." - -"Well, well." He shook a sorrowful head. "And to think I shouldn't -have knowed it! Look out!" - -They had swung by the log mission with the black-robed priest in the -door, circled the ruins of a Hudson Bay fort, and now the Assiniboin -Ford had suddenly opened before them. Fed fat by mountain streams, the -river poured, a yeasty flood, over the ford, a roaring terror of swift -waters. While the girl caught her breath they were in to the hubs, the -thills; then the green waters licked up through the buck-board staves. -Half wading, half swimming, the ponies were held to the narrow passage -by that master-hand. On either side smooth, sucking mouths drew down to -dangerous currents, and, reaching, Carter flicked one with his whip. - -"Cree Injun drowned there last flood." - -A moment later he turned the ponies sharply upstream and told of two -settlers who had lingered a second too long on that turn. Indeed, it -seemed to Helen as though each race, every eddy, perpetuated the memory -of some unfortunate. She sighed her relief when, with a rush, the -ponies took them up the bank, out of the roar and swirl, into the shade -of a ravine. - -Glancing up, she caught Carter regarding her with serious admiration. -"You'll do," he said. Then she realized that this man, whom she had -been trying to classify with her city tradesmen, had been trying her out -according to his standards. The thought brought sudden confusion. She -blushed. But with ready tact he turned and kept up a rapid fire of -comment on the country through which they were passing till she -recovered her composure. - -For they were now in the Park Lands, the antithesis of the arid plains -on the other side of the river. Flower-bespangled, dotted with clump -poplar, retaining in August a suggestion of spring's verdure, the -prairies rolled off and away in long earth billows. Everywhere rank -herbage bowed in sunlit waves under the wind. Nor was there lack of -life. Here an elk sprang from behind a bluff. A band of jumping deer -followed him over the horizon. There a covey of prairie-chickens rose -on whirring wing; a fox grinned at them from the crest of a sand-hill. -A rich country, the girl was remarking on the lack of settlers when -Carter extended his whip. - -"There's the first of them. That's Flynn's place." - -Speeding through the enormous grain-fields west of Winnipeg, Helen had -seen from the cars solitary cabins of frame or sod, pinned down, as it -were, in the exact centre of a carpet of wheat, emphasizing with their -loneliness that vastness about them. But this was different, more -homelike, if quite as strange. Built of hewn logs and lime-washed, -Flynn's house nestled with its stables and out-buildings under the wing -of a poplar bluff. Around it, of course, stretched the wheat; but here -it was merely an oasis, a bright shoal in the sea of brown that flowed -on to a distant dark line, the spruce forests of the Riding Mountains. - -Bathed in sunshine, with cattle wandering at will, knee-deep in pasture, -it made a beautiful picture. The girl came under its spell. She felt -the freedom, the witchery of those sun-washed spaces; their silences, -whispers, cloud-shadows, the infinity which broods upon them. - -"Is our place like this?" she asked. - -"Prettier." Carter indicated the distant forest line. "We are close in -to the bush and the country is broken up into woodland, lake, and -rolling prairie." - -"Then I can be happy," she sighed. - -Quickly averting his eyes that their sympathy might not dampen her mood, -he drew her attention to a man who was cutting green fodder on the far -side of the wheat-field. - -"There's Flynn." - - - - - *IV* - - *THE COYOTE SNAPS* - - -A tall Irishman of the gaunt Tipperary breed, Flynn straightened as -Carter reined in, and thrust out a mighty paw. "Ye're welcome, ma'am; -an' ye've come in season, for the woman's just called to dinner. Just -drive on an' unhitch before the door." - -"Yes, it's a fine stand of wheat." - -Walking beside them, he replied to Carter's comment: "Too foine. It's a -troifle rank to ripen before the frost." A wistful shade clouded his -face, extinguished the mercurial twinkle in his eye. "It 'll freeze, -shure." The accent on the last syllable was pitiable, for it told of -long waiting, hope deferred, labor ill-requited. It was the voice of -one who bolsters himself that the stroke of fate may not utterly kill, -who slays expectation lest it betray him. Yet in its pessimism dead -hope breathed. "Yes, it 'll freeze," Flynn assured the malicious fates. - -At close range the house was not nearly so picturesque. A motley of -implements strewed the yard: ploughs, harrows, rakes, a red-and-green -binder, all resting hap-hazard among a litter of chips, half-hewn logs, -and other debris. The stables were hidden by huge manure piles. The -place lacked every element of the order one sees on an Eastern -farm--rioted in the necessary disorder of newness. Flynn's generation -were too busy making farms; tidiness would come with the next. - -Not realizing this, Helen was drawing unfavorable parallels from the -pervading squalor, when Mrs. Flynn, who was simply Flynn in petticoats, -came bustling out with welcomes. Miss Morrill must come right in! It -was that long since she, Mrs. Flynn, had set eyes on a woman's face that -she had almost forgotten what they looked like! - -"An' you that fond av your glass, mother?" Flynn teased. - -"Glass, ye say?" Mrs. Flynn retorted. "Sure an' 'twas yerself that -smashed it three months ago. It's the bottom av a milk-pan he's been -shaving in ever since, my dear," she added. - -Flynn winked. "An' let me advise you, Carter. If ivir ye marry, don't -have a glass in the house an' ye'll be able to see ye'self in ivery -tin." - -Out at the stable the merriment died from his face, and facing Carter he -asked: "Phwat's up between ye and Hines? I was taking dinner with -Bender yesterday, an' while we was eating along came Hines. - -"'There's a man,' he says, spaking to Bender av you. 'There's a man! -big, impident, strong. Ye're no chicken, Bender, but ye couldn't put -that fellow's shoulders to the ground.' I'm not needing to tell you the -effect on Bender?" Flynn finished. - -Carter nodded. He knew the man. Big, burly, brutal, Bender was a -natural product of the lumber-camps in which he had lived a life that -was little more than a calender of "scraps." Starting in at eighteen on -the Mattawa, he had fought his way to the head of its many camps, then -passed to the Michigan woods and attained the kingship there. He -_lived_ rather than _loved_ to fight. But, though in the northern -settlements Carter was the only man who approximated the lumberman's -difficult standard in courage and inches, so far fate had denied him -cause of quarrel. - -"The coyote!" Flynn exclaimed, when Carter had told of Hines's attempt -on Morrill's hay-slough. "An' him sick in bed, poor man. I wouldn't -wipe me feet on Hines's dirty rag av a soul. But he's made ye some -mischief. 'Ye're a liar, Hines!' Bender growls. 'I can lick him er any -other man betwixt this an' the Rockies.' - -"Hines didn't like the lie, but he gulped it. 'Talk's cheap,' he -snarls. - -"'Carter's a good neighbor,' Bender answers. 'But if he gives me a -cause--' - -"'A _cause_?' Hines cackles, laughing. 'Why, him an' Morrill have -grabbed all the best hay in Silver Creek an' defy anny man to touch it. -Run your mower into their big slough an' ye'll have cause enough.' - -"That made Bender hot. 'I'll do it!' he roars, 'this very day.' But," -Flynn finished, "he had to run out to the blacksmith's to fix his mower -sickle, so he won't get out till to-morrow morning." - -"If ye need anny help--" he said, tentatively, as Carter pondered with -frowning brow. Then, catching the other's eye, he hastily added: "Ye'll -pardon me! But Bender's a terr'ble fighter!" - -His alarm was so palpable that Carter laughed. "Don't bother," he said. -"I'm not going to roll, bite, chew, or gouge with Bender." - -"Look here!" Flynn interposed, with additional alarm. "Ye'll not be -after making anny gun-plays? This is Canada, ye'll mind, where they -hang folks mighty easy." - -Carter laughed again. "There won't be any fight. Listen!" - -And Flynn did listen. As he grasped the other's meaning, his face -cleared and his hearty laugh carried to the house where Helen was making -the acquaintance of the smaller Flynns. Six in number, bare-legged, and -astonishingly regular in gradation, they scampered like mice on her -entrance and hid behind the cotton partition that divided bedroom from -kitchen. For a while they were quiet, then Helen became aware of a -current of stealthy talk underflowing Mrs. Flynn's volubility. - -"Ain't her waist small?" - -"Bet you she wears stays the hull time." - -"Like them mother puts on to meetin'?" - -"Shore!" - -"Git out; her face ain't red. Mother nearly busts when she hitches -her'n." - -"Ain't that yaller hair pretty?" This sounded like a girl, though it -was hard to decide, for all wore a single sexless garment. - -"Bet you it ain't all her'n. Dad says as them city gals is all took to -pieces when they go to bed." This was surely a boy, and, unfortunately -for him, the remark sailed out on a pause in his mother's comment. - -"James!" she exclaimed, raising shocked hands. "Come right here." - -He came slowly, suspiciously, then, divining from his parent's look the -enormity of his crime, he dived under her arm, shot out-doors, and was -lost in the wheat. After him, a cataract of bare limbs, poured the -others, all escaping but one small girl whom Helen caught, kissed, and -held thereafter in willing bondage until, after dinner, Carter drove -round to the door. - -Though they had rested barely an hour after their forty-mile run, the -ponies repeated the morning's performance, to the horror of Mrs. Flynn; -then, as though realizing that they had done all that reputation -required, they settled down to a steady jog--in which respect, -colloquially, they were imitated by their human freight. A little tired, -Helen was content to sit and take silent note of the homesteads which -now occurred at regular intervals, while Carter was perfecting his plan -for the discomfiture of the warlike Bender. Slough, lake, wood-land, -farm passed in slow and silent procession. Once he roused to answer her -comment as they rattled by some Indian graves that crowned a knoll. - -"To keep the coyotes from robbing the resurrection," he explained the -poplar poles that roofed in the graves. - -He spoke again when the buck-board ran in among a score of curious mud -pillars. About thrice the height of a man, inscriptionless, they -loomed, weird guardians of that lonely land till he robbed their -mystery. - -"Them? Mud chimneys. You see, when a Cree Indian dies his folks burn -down the cabin to keep his spirit from returning, and as mud won't burn -the chimneys stand. Small-pox cleaned out this village." Then, with -innocent gravity, he went on to tell of a stray scientist who had -written a monograph on those very chimneys. "'Monoliths' he called 'em. -Allowed that they were dedicated to a tribal god, and was used to burn -prisoners captured in war. It was a beautiful theory and made a real -nice article. Why did I let him? Well, now, 'twould have been a sin to -enlighten him, he was that blamed happy poking round them chimneys, and -the folks that read his article wouldn't know any better." - -Chuckling at the remembrance, he relapsed again to his planning, and did -not speak again till they had crossed the valley of Silver Creek from -which the northern settlement took its name. Then, indicating a black -dot far off on the trail, he said: - -"There comes Molyneux." - -"Two in the rig," he added, a few minutes later. "A man and a woman. -That 'll be Mrs. Leslie." - -Unaccustomed to the plainsman's vision, which senses rather than sees -the difference of size, color, movement that mark cattle from horses, a -single rig from a double team, Helen was dubious till, swinging out from -behind a poplar bluff, the team bore down upon them. Two persons were -in the rig: a man of the blackly handsome type, and a stylish, pretty -woman, who, as Carter turned out to drive by, waved him to stop. - -"Monopolist!" she scolded, when the rigs ranged side by side. "Here I'm -just dying to meet Miss Morrill and you would have whisked her by. Now -do your duty." - -"Captain Molyneux," she said, introducing her companion in turn. "A -neighbor. We just heard this morning that you were coming and I was so -glad; and I'm gladder now that I've seen you." Her glance travelled -admiringly over Helen's face and figure. "You know there are so few -women here, and they--" Her pretty nose tip-tilted. "Well, you'll see -them. Soon I shall make my call; carry you off for a few days, if your -brother will permit it. But there! I'm keeping you from him. -Good-bye. Now you may go, Mr. Carter." - -A touch of merry defiance in the permission caused Helen to glance up at -her companion. Though Mrs. Leslie's glance was almost caressing -whenever it touched him, he had stared straight ahead of him while she -chatted. - -"You don't like them?" the girl asked. "Why? She likes you." - -His sternness vanished and he smiled down upon her. "Now, what made you -think that?" - -"I didn't think; I felt it." - -"Funny things, feelings, ain't they? I mind one that took me fishing -when I ought to have been keeping school. 'Twas a beautiful day. -Indian-summer back East. You know 't: still, silent, broody, warm; -first touch of gold in the leafage. I just _felt_ that I had to go -fishing. But when dad produced a peeled hickory switch that night he -told me: 'Son, feelings is treacherous things. This will teach you the -difference between thinking and knowing.' It did--for a while." - -"But you don't like them?" she persisted, refusing to be side-tracked. -Then she blushed under his look of grave surprise, realizing that she -had broken one of the unwritten canons of frontier etiquette. "I beg -your pardon," she said, hastily. "I didn't mean to--" - -His smile wiped out the offence. Stretching his whip, he said, "There's -your house." - -Helen cried aloud. Nestling under the eaves of green forest, it faced -on a lake that lay a scant quarter-mile to the south. North, west, and -south, trim clump poplar dotted its rolling land and rose in the fields -of grain. Here nature, greatest of landscape-gardeners, had planned her -best, setting a watered garden within a fence of forest. Just for a -second the house flashed out between two green bluffs, a neat log -building, lime-washed in settler style, then it was snatched again from -her shining eyes. - -But Carter had seen a figure standing at the door. "Clear grit!" he -mentally ejaculated. "Blamed if he ain't up and dressed to save her -feelings." Then, aloud, he gave her necessary warnings. "Now you -mustn't expect too much. He's doing fine, but no doubt pulled down a -bit since you saw him." - - -Two hours later Carter stepped out from his own cabin. He and Morrill -had "homesteaded" halves of the same section, and as he strode south the -latter's lamp beamed a yellow welcome through the soft night. Already he -had refused an invitation to supper, deeming that the brother and sister -would prefer to spend their first evening alone together, and now -ignoring the lamp's message, he entered Merrill's stable, saddled the -latter's cattle pony in darkness thick as ink, led him out, and rode -quietly away. - -Now of all equines, your northern cross-bred pony is the most cunning. -For three black miles Shyster behaved with propriety, then, sensing by -the slack line that his rider was preoccupied, he achieved a vicious -sideling buck. Well executed, it yet failed of its intent. - -"You little devil!" Carter remonstrated, as he applied correctives in -the form of quirt and spurs. "Rest don't suit your complaint. -To-morrow you go on the mower." - -"Hullo!" a voice cried from the darkness ahead. "Who's that cussing?" - -It was Danvers, an English remittance-man, a typical specimen of the -tribe of Ishmael which is maintained in colonial exile on "keep-away" -allowances. - -"Are you lost?" Carter asked. - -"Lost? No!" There was an aggrieved note in Danvers' tone. "You -fellows seem to think that I oughtn't to be out after dark. There's Jed -Hines going about and telling people that I knocked at my own door one -night to inquire my way." - -"Tut, tut," Carter sympathized. "And Jed counted such a truthful man! -You'll find it hard to live that down. But where might you be heading -for now--if it's any of my darn business?" - -"Morrill's. Heard his sister had arrived. I'm going to drop in and pay -my respects." - -"Humph! that's neighborly. They've had just two hours to exchange the -news of three years; they'll shorely be through by this. Keep right on, -son. In five-and-twenty minutes this trail will land you at Jed Hines's -door." - -"Oh, get out!" Danvers exclaimed. - -"Sir, to you?" Carter assumed a wonderful stiffness. "I'll give you -good-night." - -"Oh, here!" the youth called after him. "I didn't mean to doubt you." - -Carter rode on. - -Ridden by a vivid memory of the jeering Hines, Danvers became desperate. -"Oh, Carter! Say, don't get mad! Do tell a fellow! How shall I get -there?" - -Carter reined in. "Where? To Hines's? Keep right along." - -"N-o! Morrill's?" - -"Oh, let me see. One--two--three--take the third fork to the left and -second to the right; that ought to bring you--to your own door," he -finished, as he listened to the departing hoof-beats. "That is, if you -follow directions, which ain't likely. Anyway," he philosophically -concluded, "you ain't agoing to bother that girl much to-night." - -Spurring Shyster, he galloped on, and in ten minutes caught Murchison, -an Englishman of the yeoman class, out at his stables. Receiving a -hearty affirmative, rounded out with full-mouthed English "damns," in -answer to his question, he declined Murchison's invitation to "put in," -and rode on--rode from homestead to homestead, asking always the same -question, receiving always the same answer. Remittance-men, Scotch -Canadians, Seebach, the solitary German settler, alike listened, -laughed, and fell in with the plan as Flynn had done. He covered many -miles and the moon caught him on trail before he permitted the last man -to carry his cold legs back to bed. It was long past midnight when he -unsaddled at Morrill's stable. - -Softly closing the door on his tired beast, he stood gazing at the -house. Far-off in the woods a night-owl hooted, a bittern boomed on the -lake shore, the still air pulsed to the howl of a timber-wolf. Though -born of the plains, its moods had never palled upon him. Usually he had -been stirred. But now he had no ears for the night nor eyes for the -lake chased in rippled silver. He listened, listened, as though his -strained hearing would drag the girl's soft sleep breathing from the -house's jealous embrace. Soon he leaned back against the door musing; -and when, having inspected the cabin from one side, the moon sailed over -and looked down on the other, he was still there. - - -As the first quivering flushes shot through the grays of dawn Bender -came out of his cabin. He intended to be at work on Merrill's big -slough at sunrise. But as he rammed home the sickle into its place in -the mower-bar a projecting rivet caused it to buckle and break. That -spelled another journey to the blacksmith's, and the sun stood at noon -before the sickle was in place. Falling to oiling with savage -earnestness, that an ancient Briton might have exhibited in greasing his -scythe-armed war-chariot, Bender then stuffed bread and meat into his -jumper, hitched, and drove off north, looking for all the world like a -grisly pirate afloat on a yellow sea. - -Half an hour's easy jogging would carry him to Merrill's big slough, but -on the way he had to pass two smaller ones. The first, which had a -hundred-yard belt of six-foot hay ringing its sedgy centre, tempted him -sorely, yet he refrained, having in mind a bigger prey. At the next he -reined in, and stared at a dozen cut swaths and a mower with feeding -horses tied to its wheels. - -It was Molyneux's mower, and to Bender its presence could only mean that -the settlement was rushing the sick man's sloughs. "Invasion of the -British!" he yelled. "What 'll Carter say to this? Remember Yorktown!" - -He was still laughing when a buck-board came rattling up the trail -behind him. It was Hines. - -"Cut that slough yet?" he asked. - -"Just going there," Bender answered; then gave the reason of his delay, -garnished with furious anathema on the maker of sickles. "But ain't -that a joke?" he said, indicating Molyneux's mower. - -Hines whinnied his satisfaction. "Didn't think it was in the Britisher. -But my! won't that gall the long-geared son of a gun of a Yank? Drive -on an' I'll follow up an' see you started--mebbe see some of the fun," -he added to himself, "if Carter's there." - -Quarter of an hour brought them to the big slough, which, on this side, -was ringed so thickly with willow-scrub that neither could see it till -they reined on its edge. Both stared blankly. When Hines went by that -morning a mile of solid hay had bowed in sunlit waves before the breeze. -Save a strip some twenty yards wide down the centre, it now lay in flat -green swaths, while along the strip a dozen feeding teams were tied to -as many mowers. - -"A bee, by G--!" Bender swore. - -"Hell!" Hines snarled even in his swearing. "Bilked, by the Almighty!" - -For a moment they stood, staring from the slough to each other, the -lumberman red, angry, foolish, Hines the personification of venomous -chagrin. Presently his rage urged him to a great foolishness. - -"You an' your casting!" he sneered. "Scairt, you was--plumb scairt!" - -Astonishment, the astonishment with which a bull might regard the attack -of an impertinent fly, obliterated for one moment all other expression -from Bender's face. Then, roaring his furious anger, he sprang from his -mower. - -Realizing his mistake, Hines had already lashed his ponies, but even -then they barely jerked the buck-board tail from under the huge, -clutching fingers. Foaming with passion, Bender gave chase for a score -of yards, then stopped and shook his great fist, pouring out invective. - -"To-morrow," he roared, "I'll come over and cut on you." - -"What's the matter? You seem all het up?" Carter's quiet voice gave -Bender first notice of the buckboard that had come quietly upon him from -the grassy prairie. With Carter were Flynn, Seebach, and two others. -Not very far away a wagon was bringing others back from dinner. - -"We're all giving Morrill a day's cutting," Carter went on, with a quiet -twinkle. "I called at your place this morning with a bid, but you was -away. We're right glad to see you. Who told you?" - -Gradually a grin wiped out Bender's choler. "You're damn smart," he -rumbled. "Well--where shall I begin?" - - - - - *V* - - *JENNY* - - -Thus did the bolt which Hines forged for Carter prove a boomerang and -recoil upon himself. For next morning Bender started his mower on a -particularly fine slough which Hines had left to the last because of its -wetness. Moreover, Hines had ten tons of cut hay bleaching near by in -the sun and dare not try to rake it. - -It was oppressively hot the morning that Bender hitched to rake the -stolen slough; fleecy thunder-heads were slowly heaving up from behind -the swart spruce forest. - -"'Twon't be worth cow-feed if it ain't raked to-day," the giant -remarked, as he overlooked his enemy's hay. Then his satisfaction gave -place to sudden anger--a rake was at work on Hines's hay less than a -quarter-mile away. - -"Hain't seen me, I reckon," Bender growled. Leaving his own rake, he -crouched in a gully, skulked along the low land, gained a willow -thicket, and sprang out just as the rake came clicking by. - -"Now I've got you!" he roared. Then his hands dropped. He stood -staring at a thin slip of a girl, who returned his gaze with dull, tired -eyes. It was Jenny Hines, Jed's only child. - -"Well," Bender growled, "what d' you reckon you're doing?" - -"Raking." Her voice was listless as her look. Just eleven when her -mother died, her small shoulders had borne the weight of Jed's -housekeeping. Heavy choring had robbed her youth, and left her, at -eighteen, nothing but a faded shadow of a possible prettiness. - -Bender coughed, shuffled. "Where's your dad?" - -"Up at the house. He allowed you wouldn't tech me. But," she added, -dully, "I'd liefer you killed me than not." - -Bender's anger had already passed. Rough pity now took its place. His -furious strength prevented him from realizing the killing drudgery, the -lugging of heavy water-buckets, the milking, feeding of pigs, the hard -labor which had killed her spirit and left this utter hopelessness; but -he knew by experience that a young horse should not be put to a heavy -draw, and here was a violation of the precept. Bender was puzzled. Had -he come on a neighbor maltreating a horse, a curse backed by his heavy -fist would have righted the wrong; but this frail creature's humanity -placed her wrongs outside his rough remedial practice. - -He whistled, swore softly, and, failing to invoke inspiration by these -characteristic methods, he said, kindly: "Well, for onct Jed tol' the -truth. Must have strained him some. Go ahead, I ain't agoing to bother -you." - -Having finished raking his own hay, he fell to work with the fork, -stabbing huge bunches, throwing them right and left, striving to work -off the pain at his heart. But pity grew with exertion, and, pausing -midway of the morning, he saw that she also was plying a weary fork. - -"You need a rest," he growled five minutes later. "Sit down." - -She glanced up at the ominous sky. "Can't. Rain's coming right on." - -Lifting her bodily, he placed her in a nest of hay. "Now you stay right -there. I'm running this." - -Picking up her fork, he put forth all his magnificent strength while she -sat listlessly watching. It seemed as though nothing could banish her -chronic weariness, her ineffable lassitude. Once, indeed, she remarked, -"My, but you're strong!" but voice and words lacked animation. She -added the remarkable climax, "Pa says you are a devil." - -"Yes?" he questioned. "An' you bet he's right, gal. Keep a right smart -distance from men like me." - -"Oh, I don't know," she slowly answered. "I'd liefer be a devil. -Angels is tiresome. Pa's always talking about them. He's a heap -religious--in spells." - -Pausing in his forking, Bender stared down on the small heretic. -Vestigial traces of religious belief occupied a lower strata of his -savage soul. Crude they were, anthropomorphic, barely higher than -superstitions, yet they were there, and chief among them was an idea -that has appealed to the most cultured of men--that woman is incomplete, -nay, lost, without religion. - -"Shore, child!" he protested. "Little gals shouldn't talk so. That -ain't the way to get to heaven." - -"D' you allow to go there?" she demanded, with disconcerting suddenness. - -Bender grimaced, laughed at the ludicrousness of the question. "Don't -allow as I'd be comfortable. Anyway, lumbermen go to t'other place. But -that don't alter your case. Gals all go to heaven." - -"Well!" For the first time she displayed some animation. "I ain't! -Pa's talked me sick of it. I allow it's them golden streets he's after. -He'd coin 'em into dollars." - -Seeing that Hines had not hesitated in minting this, his flesh and -blood, Bender thought it very likely, and feeling his inability to cope -with such reasonable heresies he attacked the hay instead. Having small -skill in women--the few of his intimate experience being as free of -feminine complexities as they were of virtue--he was sorely puzzled. -Looking backward, he remembered his own pious mother. Hines's wife had -died whispering of religion's consolations; yet here was the daughter -turning a determined back on the source of the mother's comfort. It was -unnatural to his scheme of things, contrary to the law of his vestigial -piety. He would try again! But when, the hay finished, he came back to -her, he quailed before her pale hopelessness; it called God in question. - -Limbering up her rake, he watched her drive away, a small, thin figure, -woful speck of life under a vast gray sky. For twisting cloud masses -had blotted out the sun, a chill wind snatched the tops from the -hay-cocks as fast as Bender coiled them, blots of water splashed the -dust before he finished his task. - -Black care rode home with him; and as that night the thunder split over -his cabin, he saw Jenny's eyes mirrored on the wet, black pane, and it -was borne dimly upon him that something besides overwork was responsible -for their haunting. - - -Bender had a friend, a man of his own ilk, with whom he had hit camp and -log-drive for these last ten years. At birth it is supposable that the -friend inherited a name, but in the camps he was known only as the -"Cougar." A silent man, broad, deep-lunged, fierce-eyed, nature had -laid his lines for great height, then bent him in a perpetual crouch. -He always seemed gathering for a spring, which, combined with tigerish -courage, had gained him his name. Inseparable, if Bender appeared on -the Mattawa for the spring drive, it was known that the Cougar might be -shortly expected. If the Cougar stole into a Rocky Mountain camp, a -bunk was immediately reserved for his big affinity. Only a bottle of -whiskey and two days' delay on the Cougar's part had prevented them from -settling up the same section. However, though five miles lay between -their respective homesteads, never a Sunday passed without one man -riding over to see the other, and it was returning from such a visit -that Bender next fell in with Jenny Hines. - -It was night and late, but as Bender rode by the forks where Hines's -private road joined on to the Lone Tree trail, a new moon gave -sufficient light for him to see a whitish object lying in the grass. He -judged it a grain-sack till a convulsion shook it and a sob rose to his -ears. - -"Good land, girl!" he ejaculated, when, a moment later, Jenny's pale -face turned up to his, "what are you doing here?" - -"He's turned me out." - -"Who?" - -"Jed." The absence of the parental title spoke volumes--of love killed -by slow starvation, cold sternness, of youth enslaved to authority -without mitigation of fatherly tenderness. - -Without understanding, Bender felt. "What for?" he demanded. - -Crowding against his stirrup, she remained silent, and the touch of her -body against his leg, the mute appeal of the contact, sent a flame of -righteous passion through Bender's big body. Indecision had never been -among his faults. Stooping, he raised her to the saddle before him, and -as she settled in against his broad breast a wave of tenderness flowed -after the flame. - -"No, no!" she begged, when he turned in on Jed's trail. "I won't go -back!" And he felt her violently trembling as he soothed and coaxed. -She tried to slip from his arms as they approached the cabin, and her -terror filled him with such anger that his kick almost stove in the -door. - -"It's me!" he roared, answering Hines's challenge. "Bender! I came on -your gal lying out on the prairies. Open an' take her in!" - -In response the window raised an inch; the moonlight glinted on a -rifle-barrel. "Kick the door ag'in!" Jed's voice snarled, "an' I'll -bore you. Git! the pair of ye!" - -"Come, come, Jed." For her sake Bender mastered his anger. "Come, this -ain't right. Let her in an' we'll call it by-gones." - -"No, no!" the girl protested. - -Though she had whispered, Jed heard, and her protest touched off his -furious wolfish passion. "Git! Won't you git!" he screeched, following -the command with a stream of screamed imprecations, vile abuse. - -If alone Bender would have beaten in the door, but there was no -mistaking Hines's deadly intent. Warned by the click of a cocking -hammer, he swung Jenny in front again, galloped out of range; then, -uncertain what to do, he gave his beast its head, and half an hour later -brought up at his own door. - -"There, sis," he said, as he lit his lamp, "make yourself happy while I -stable Billy. Then I'll cook up some grub, an' while we're eating we -can talk over things." - -She smiled wanly yet gratefully. But when he returned she was rocking -back and forth and moaning. - -"Don't take on so," he comforted. "To-night I'll sleep in the stable; -at daybreak we'll hit south for Mother Flynn's." But the moans followed -in quick succession, beaded sweat started on her brow, and as she swung -forward he saw that which, two hours before, had turned Jed Hines into a -foaming beast. - -"Oh, my God!" The exclamation burst from him. "You pore little thing! -you pore little child! Only a baby yourself!" - -Stooping, he lifted her into his bed, tucked her in, then stood, -doubtful, troubled, looking down upon her. Two-thirds of the settlers in -Silver Creek were of Scotch descent; were deeply dyed with the granite -hardness, harsh malignancy, fervid bigotry which have caused the history -of their race to be written in characters of blood. Fiercely moral, -dogmatically religious, she could expect no mercy at their hands. -Hard-featured women, whose angular unloveliness had efficiently -safeguarded their own virtue, would hate her the more because her fault -had been beyond their compass. Looking forward, Bender saw the poor -little body a passive centre for a whorl of spite, jealousy, virulent -spleen, and the rough heart of him was mightily troubled. In all Silver -Creek, Mrs. Flynn was the only woman to whom he felt he might safely -turn. But Flynn's farm lay eighteen miles to the south--too far; the -child was in imminent labor. What should he do? - -"Jenny," he said, "any women folk been to your house lately?" - -When she answered that they had been without a visitor for three months, -Bender nodded his satisfaction. "Lie still, child," he said. "I'll be -back right smart." - -He was not gone long--just long enough to drive over to and back from -Carter's. "I'm not trusting any of the women hereabouts," he told -Carter. "Though it ain't generally known, the Cougar was married once. -The same Indians that did up Custer cleaned up his wife and family. An' -as he always lived a thousand miles from a doctor, he knows all about -sech things. So if you'll drive like all hell for him, I'll tend to the -little gal." - -And Carter drove. In one hour he brought the Cougar, but even in that -short time a wonderful transformation was wrought in that rough cabin -under Bender's sympathetic eyes. From the travail of the suffering girl -was born a woman--but not a mother. For of the essence of life Jenny -had not sufficient to endow the child of her labor. The spark flickered -down in herself, sank, till the Cougar, roughest yet gentlest of nurses, -sweated with apprehension. - -"It's death or a doctor," he told Carter, hiding his emotion under a -surly growl. "Now show what them ponies are good for." - -And that night those small fiends did "show what they were good -for";--made a record that stood for many a year. Roused from his -beauty-sleep, Flynn caught the whir of hot wheels and wondered who was -sick. It was yet black night when Carter called Father Francis, the -silent mission priest, from his bed. By lantern-light they two, layman -and priest, spelled each other with pick and shovel in the mission acre, -and when the last spadeful dropped on the small grave, Carter flew on. -At cock-crow he pulled into Lone Tree, sixty miles in six hours, without -counting the stop at the mission. - -"I doubt I've killed you," he murmured, as the ponies stood before the -doctor's door, "but it just had to be done." - -The doctor himself answered the knock. A heavy man, grizzled, -gray-eyed, sun and wind had burned his face to leather, for his days and -nights were spent on trail, pursuing a practice that was only limited by -the endurance of horse-flesh. From the ranges incurably vicious broncos -were sent to his stables, devils in brute form. He used seven teams; -yet the toughest wore out in a year. Day or night, winter or summer, a -hundred in the shade or sixty below, he might be seen pounding them -along the trails. Even now he had just come in from the Pipe Stone, -sixty miles southwest, but he instantly routed out his man. - -"Hitch the buckskins, Bill," he said, "and let him run yours round to -the stables, Carter. He'll turn 'em out prancing by the time we're -back." - -It took Bill, the doctor, and Carter to get the buckskins clear of town, -but once out the doctor handed the lines to Carter. "Now let 'em run." -Then he fell asleep. - -He woke as they passed the mission, exchanged words with the priest, and -dozed again till Carter reined in at Bender's door. Then, shedding -sleep as a dog shakes off water, he entered, clear-eyed, into the battle -with death. - -It was night when he came out to Bender and Carter, sprawled on the hay -in the stable. - -"She'll live," he answered the lumberman's look, "but she must have -woman's nursing. Who's to be? Mrs. Flynn?" He shook his head. "A good -woman, but--she has her sex's weakness--damned long-tongued." - -Bender looked troubled. "There ain't a soul knows it--yet." - -The doctor nodded. "Yes, yes, but I doubt whether you can keep it, -boys." - -"I think," Carter said, slowly, "that if it was rightly put Miss Morrill -might--" - -"That sweet-faced girl?" The doctor's gray eyes lit with approval, and -the cloud swept back from Bender's rugged face. - -"If she only would!" the giant stammered, "I'd--" He cast about for a -fitting recompense, and finding none worth, finished, "There ain't a -damn thing I wouldn't do for her." - -The doctor took doubt by the ears. "Well, hitch and let's see." - -Realizing that the girl would probably have her fair share of the -prejudice, he opened his case very gently an hour later. But he might -have saved his diplomacy. - -"Of course!" she exclaimed, as soon as she grasped the facts. "Poor -little thing! I'll go right over with Mr. Bender. - -"And remember," the doctor said, finishing his instructions, "she needs -mothering more than medicine." - -So, satisfied, he and Carter hit the back trail, but not till he had -examined Morrill with stethoscope and tapping finger. "Must have some -excuse for my trip," he said, "and you'll have to serve. So don't be -scared if you happen to hear that you have had another hemorrhage. Good! -Good!" he exclaimed at every tap, but once on trail he shook his head. -"May go in a month; can't last six. Be prepared." - -A fiery sunset was staining the western sky when, on his way back from -Lone Tree, Carter stopped at Bender's door. The glow tinged the furious -cloud that rose from the Cougar's pipe. - -"Doing well," he laconically answered. "Never saw a gal pull round -better from a fainting spell." - -Nodding comprehension, Carter mentioned a doubt that had nettled him on -the trail. "Jed? Do you think he'll--" - -Sudden ferocity flamed up in the Cougar's face. "I tended to him this -morning," he said, slowly, ominously. "He's persuaded as he mistook the -girl's symptoms. Anyway, he ain't agoing to foul his own nest so long as -no one knows." - -"Wants her back, I suppose?" - -The Cougar nodded. "She's worth more to him than his best ox-team. But -he ain't agoing to get her. Don't go! Miss Morrill's inside an' wants -to run over home for some things. Fine gal that." The Cougar's set -fierceness of face almost thawed as he delivered his opinion. - -Driving homeward, Helen opened the subject just where the Cougar had -left it. "She won't go back to her father," she said, "and I don't -blame her. But she can't stay here." - -However, Jenny's future was already provided. "You needn't to worry," -Carter said. "The doctor's fixed things. He and his wife have neither -chick nor child of their own; they'll take her in." - -The girl exclaimed her surprised gladness. To her, indeed, the entire -incident was a revelation. Here three rough frontiersmen had banded -successfully together to protect a wronged child and keep her within -their rough social pale. Through all they had exhibited a tact and -delicacy not always found in finer social stratas, and the lesson went -far in modifying certain caste ideas--would have gone farther could she -have known the fulness of their delicacy. - -Only once was the cause of Jenny's illness ever hinted at among the -three; that when Carter and Bender lay waiting for the doctor in the -stable. - -"You don't happen to have made a guess at the man?" Carter had asked. - -"She hain't mentioned him," the giant answered, a little stiffly. - -But he thawed when Carter answered: "You'll pardon me. I was just -wondering if a rope might help her case." - -Bender had shaken his head. "Las' year, you'll remember, one of -Molyneux's remittance-men uster drive her out while Jed had her hired -out to Leslie's. But he's gone back to England." - -Also Helen had learned to look beneath Bender's scarred surface. Every -day, while Jenny lay in his shanty, he would slip in between loads of -hay to see her. At first the presence of so much femininity embarrassed -him. One petticoat hanging on the wall while another floats over the -floor is enough to upset any bachelor. Only when sitting with Jenny did -he find his tongue; then, giant of the camps, he prattled like a -school-boy, freeing thoughts and feelings that had been imprisoned -through all his savage years. It was singularly strange, too, to see -how Jenny reciprocated his feelings. She liked Helen, but all of her -petting could not bring the smile that came for Bender, in whom she -sensed a kindred shy simplicity. - -Helen was to get yet one other light from these unpromising surfaces, a -light bright as those of Scripture which are said to shine as lamps to -the feet. A few days after Jenny's departure Bender rode up to the door -where Carter sat talking with Morrill. - -"Got any stock to sell?" he inquired. "Cows in calf?" - -"Going in for butter-making?" Carter inquired, grinning. - -"Nope!" The giant laughed. "'Tain't for myself I'm asking. I'm a -lumberman born an' bred; the camps draw me like salt-licks pull the -deer. I'd never have time to look after them. Farming's play with me. -On'y I was thinking as it wouldn't be so bad if that little gal had a -head or two of her own growing inter money. You kin let 'em run with -your band summers, an' I'll put up winter hay for them an' the increase. -How are you, miss?" He nodded as Helen came to the door. - -It was her first experience in such free giving, and she was astonished -to see how devoid his manner was of philanthropic consciousness. -Plainly he regarded the whole affair as very ordinary business. -Carter's answer accentuated the novel impression--"What's the matter -with me contributing them heifers?" - -"Da--beg pardon, miss." Bender blushed. "No you don't. This is my -funeral. But I'm no hawg. Now if you wanter throw in a couple of -calves--" - -Thus, without deed, oath, or mortgage, but with a certainty that none of -these forms could afford, did little Jenny Hines become a young lady of -property. The matter disposed of, Bender called Carter off to the -stable, where, after many mysterious fumblings, he produced from a -package a gorgeous silk kerchief of rainbow hues. - -"You'll give Miss Morrill this?" - -But Carter balked, grinning. "Lordy, man; do your own courting." - -"Say!" the giant ejaculated, shocked. "You don't reckon she'd take it -that way?" - -Carter judiciously considered the question, and after mature -deliberation replied: "I've seen breach-of-promise suits swing on less. -But I reckon you're safe enough--if you explain your motive." - -The giant sighed his relief. "Did you ever give a gal anything, -Carter?" - -"Did I? Enough to stock a farm if 'twas collected." - -"How'd you go about it?" - -"Why, jes' give it to her. You're bigger'n she is; kain't hurt you." - -"Oh, Lordy, I don't know." Bender sighed again. "It's surprising what -them small things kin do to you. Say, there's a good feller. You take -it in?" - -But Carter sternly refused, and five minutes later Bender might have -been seen, stern and rigid from the desperate nature of his enterprise, -sitting on one of Helen's soap-boxes. In the hour he talked with -Morrill, he never once relaxed a death-grip on his hat. His eye never -once strayed towards Helen, and it was late that evening when she found -the kerchief under his box. - -It speaks well for her that she did not laugh at its gorgeous colors; -and her smile as she scribbled a little note of thanks that was -delivered by Carter was far too tender for ridicule. Truly she was -learning. - - - - - *VI* - - *THE SHADOW* - - -Down a half-mile furrow that gleamed wetly black against the dull brown -of "broken" prairie, Carter followed his oxen. He was "back-setting," -deep-ploughing the sod that had lain rotting through the summer. For -October, it was hot; an acrid odor, ammoniacal from his sweating beasts, -mingled with the tang of the soil and the strong hay scent of scorching -prairies. Summer was making a desperate spurt from winter's chill -advance, and, as though realizing it, bird, beast, insects, as well as -men, went busily about their business. The warm air was freighted with -the boom of bees, vibrated to the whir of darting prairie-chicken, the -yells of distant ploughmen; for, stimulated by an answer from the -railroad gods, the settlers were striving to add to their wheat acreage. - -"In certain contingencies," the general manager answered the petition, -"we will build through Silver Creek next summer." - -Judging by a remark dropped to his third assistant, "uncertain" would -have expressed his meaning more correctly. "A little hope won't hurt -them, and ought to go a long way in settling up the country. -By-the-way, who signed these statistics? Cummings? That wasn't the -tall Yankee who spoke so well. He never would have sent in such a -jumble." - -Blissfully ignorant, however, of railroad methods, the settlers -interpreted the guarded answer as an iron promise. Forgetting Carter's -part in getting them a hearing, Cummings and his fellows plumed -themselves upon their diplomacy, took to themselves the credit--in which -they evidenced the secret malevolence that a rural community holds -against the man who rises above its intellectual level. Human -imperfection is invariable through the ages. Plebeian Athens ostracised -the just Aristides. Similarly, Silver Creek evidenced its petty -jealousy against its best brains. "Oh, he's too damned smart!" it -exclaimed, whenever Carter was mentioned for the council, school -trustee, or other public office, nor paused to consider its logic. - -Slowly, with heavy gaspings, the oxen stopped at the end of the furrow, -and as he sat down on the plough while they rested, Carter blessed the -happy chance that had caused him to "break" clear down to Morrill's -boundary. Helen sat in the shade of her cabin, thus affording him -delicious glimpses of a scarlet mouth, slightly pursed over her sewing, -a loose curl that glowed like a golden bar amid the creamy shadows of -her neck, the palpitant life of the feminine figure. Small wonder that -he lingered on that turn. - -"It's that warm," he hypocritically remarked, fanning himself, "those -poor critters' tongues are hanging to their knees." - -The girl bowed to hide her smile. "They always seem to tire at this end -of the field." - -"Discerning brutes," he answered, nowise nonplussed. - -She broke a silence. "It is considered bad manners to stare." - -"Yes?" he cheerfully inquired. "I'll make a note of that." - -A few moments later she remarked, "You have a poor memory." - -"Thank you for telling. In what way?" - -"You were staring." - -"N-o." - -"You were." - -"Beg your pardon. It takes two to make a stare. If I keep on looking -you in the eye--that's staring. If I'm looking when you ain't supposed -to know it--that's--that's--" - -"Well?" she prompted. - -"Mighty pleasant," he finished, rising. - -As he moved off she looked curiously after. While he was talking, some -fleeting expression, trick of speech had recalled him as she first saw -him at Lone Tree--a young man, tall, sunburned, soft of speech, -ungrammatical, and the picture had awakened her to a change in herself. -In this her fourth month in the settlement she felt she had lost the -keen freshness of the stranger's point of view. She now scarcely -noticed his idiom, accent, grammatical lapses. Oddities of speech and -manner that at first would have provoked surprise or laughter no longer -challenged her attention. If the land's vast rawness still impressed, -she was losing the clarity of first perceptions. - -She was being absorbed; her individuality was slowly undergoing the -inevitable process of addition and cancellation. How dim, indefinite -the past already seemed. Some other girl might have lived it, gone -through the round of parties, balls, associated with the well-groomed -men, refined girls of her acquaintance. How vivid, concrete was the -present! She contemplated her hands, roughened by dish-washing. Did it -foretell her future? Would this equilibration with environment end by -leaving her peer of the gaunt, labor-stricken women of the settlements? -She shuddered. The thought stamped her mood so that, returning on the -other round, Carter passed on, thinking her offended. - -"Why so grave, sis?" Her brother smiled down upon her from the doorway. -Since her arrival he had had many ups and downs, alternating between -bed-fast and apparent convalescence. To-day the fires of life would -flare high, to flicker down to-morrow like a guttering candle that -wastes the quicker to its end. Not for the world would she increase his -anxiety with her foreboding. Hiding the dejection with a quick smile, -she turned his question with another. - -"Bert, why does Mr. Carter dislike Captain Molyneux, the Leslies, and--" - -"The English crowd in general?" he finished for her. "Does he? I never -heard him say much against them." - -"No, he's one of your silent men. But actions count more than words. -When he drives me to or from Leslies' he invariably refuses the -invitation to come in, pleading hurry." - -"Well, he has been pretty busy." - -Morrill stated a fact. Carter had spent the haying months in the forest -sloughs, where they cut the bulk of their fodder. There, with the deep -woods smothering every errant breeze, mercury at a hundred, the fat -marsh sweating underfoot, he had moved, raked, or pitched while -sand-flies took toll of his flesh by day and mosquitoes converted his -homeward journey into a feast of blood. Eighty head of cattle, his and -Merrill's, had to be provided for, and he alone to do it. And it was -from these heavy labors that he had stolen time to drive Helen back and -forth. - -"But he repels their every attempt at friendliness!" she protested. -"Positively snubbed Captain Molyneux the other day." - -Morrill laughed. "Why do they persist in their overtures? Carter is -flesh and blood of the frontier, which makes no bones over its likes and -dislikes. With him a friend is a friend. He has no use for -civilization which calls upon its votaries to spread their friendship in -a thin veneer over a vast acquaintance. Having, courteously enough, -intimated that he doesn't desire closer acquaintance, he expects them to -heed the hint. Failing, they may expect to have it stated in stronger -terms. Molyneux has lived long enough in the north to know that." His -answer, however, simply completed the circle and brought them back to -the starting-point. - -She restated the issue. "But why doesn't he like them?" - -Morrill answered her question with another. "Why do you like them?" - -"They are nice." - -"Mrs. Leslie?" he catechised. - -"A trifle frivolous, perhaps, but--I like her." - -"Leslie, Danvers, Poole, and the rest of them?" - -"Impractical," she admitted, "thoroughly impractical, all but Captain -Molyneux. His farm is a model. Yet--I like them." - -She spoke musingly, as though examining her feelings for cause, analysis -of which would have shown that the wide differences between herself and -her new acquaintances had added to the glamour and sparkle which are -given off by fresh personalities. She liked their refinement, courtesy, -subtleties, and grace of conduct which shone the brighter in that rough -setting. To her their very speech was charming, with its broad vowels, -leisurely drawled, so much softer than the clipped American idiom. - -They were, indeed, over-refined. Five centuries ago the welding of -Celt, Saxon, Roman, Norman into one homogeneous whole was full and -complete; since then that potent mixture of blood had undergone slow -stagnation. Noble privilege and laws of entail had checked in the -motherland those selective processes which sweep the foolish, wicked, -and vicious from the face of the earth. Protected by the aristocratic -system, the fool, the idler, the roue had handed their undesirableness -down the generations, a heavy mortgage on posterity. Ripe fruit of a -vicious system, decay had touched them at the core; last links of a -chain once strong, they had lacked the hot hammering from grim -circumstance that alone could make them fit to hold and bind. - -Morrill laid his thin finger on the spot. "All right, Nell, they are -harmless." He laughed as he used the scornful term which the Canadian -settlers applied to their English neighbors. "You must have some -company. I don't dislike them myself, and would probably like them -better if it was not for their insufferable national conceit and blind -caste feeling. They look with huge contempt on all persons and things -which cannot claim origin in the narrow bit of English society from -which they sprang. I'm not denying their country's greatness. But, -like the Buddhist, lost in contemplation of his own navel, they have -turned their eyes inward till they're blind to all else. On we -Americans they are particularly hard, regarding us with the easy -tolerance that one may extend to the imperfections of an anthropoid ape. -Now don't fire up! They have always been nice to me. Still I can feel -the superiority beneath the surface. With Carter it is different. Him -they classify with the Canadian settlers, and you may fancy the effect -on a man who, in skill of hands and brain, character, all the things -that count in life, stands waist-high above them. He sees them cheated, -cozened by every shyster. Men in years, they are children in -experience, and if help from home were withdrawn not one could stand on -his own legs. They are the trimmings of their generation, encumbrances -on the family estate or fortune, useless timber lopped off from the -genealogical tree. Do you wonder that he despises them?" - -"I think," she said, after a thoughtful pause, "that he is too stern in -his judgments. Impracticability isn't a crime, Bert, and people ought -not to be blamed for the conditions that made them." - -"True, little wisehead." - -"He ought," she went on, "to be more friendly. I'm sure Mrs. Leslie -likes him." - -Morrill smothered a laugh. "Carter's a mighty handsome man, young lady, -and Mrs. Leslie is--a shade impressionable. But in social affairs women -decide on women, men on men." - -She nodded, puckering her brow. "Yes, but he behaved dreadfully to -Captain Molyneux." - -Her genuine distress prevented the laugh from escaping. "Tell me about -it," he sympathized. - -"It was the other evening when he came to drive me home. Despite his -reserve, the younger boys all like him, and when Captain Molyneux -brought me out he was telling Mr. Poole and Mr. Rhodes about a horse -that Danvers had bought from Cummings. 'The critter,' Carter said, 'is -blind, spavined, sweenied, and old enough to homestead.' - -"'Well,' the captain added, 'Danvers has always needed a guardian, Mr. -Carter.'" - -"In his patronizing way?" Morrill commented. - -"A little, perhaps," she admitted. "Then, looking straight at us, -Carter answered, 'He could have picked a worse.' What did he mean, -Bert? The captain reddened and the boys looked silly." - -Morrill grinned. "Well--you see, Nell, Molyneux's income is mostly -derived from the farming of pupils who are apprenticed to him by a firm -of London lawyers while under the impression that colonial farming is a -complex business that requires years of study. Having whacked up from -five hundred to five thousand dollars premium, they find, on arrival, -that they have simply paid for the privilege of doing ordinary farm -work. You said Molyneux's place was a model. No wonder, when he draws -pay where other men have to hire. No, the business isn't exactly -dishonorable!" He anticipated her question. "He does teach them -something, and prevents them from falling into the hands of Canuck -shysters who would bleed them for hundreds when he takes fifties. -But--well, it isn't a business I'd care to be in. But there! I've -talked myself tired, and Molyneux is coming at three to drive you up to -Leslie's. You have just half an hour to dress." - -"But I won't go," she protested, "if you're not feeling well." - -"Bosh!" he laughed. "I'm dying to be rid of you. Expect to get quiet -sleep this afternoon." - -But as, half an hour later, he watched her drive away, his face -darkened, and he muttered: "This will never do. She can't settle down -to this life. Just as soon--" A fit of coughing left him gasping; but, -under the merciful hallucination that attends consumption, he finished, -"I'll sell out as soon as I'm rid of this cough and go back to the law." - -Carter also watched her go. As, dank with sweat, grimed with dust and -labor, he "geed" his oxen around the "land," she went by, a flutter of -billowy white, deliciously dainty, cool, and clean. The contrast -emphasized the difference between them so strongly that a sudden feeling -of bitter hopelessness caused him to return only a stern nod to her bow -and smile. Surprised, she looked back, and gleaning, perhaps, an -intuition of his feeling from the dogged set of his face and figure, she -was swept with sudden pity. - -For a mile she was quiet; but while the sun shines youth may not hobnob -with care, and that was a perfect day. Autumn's crimsons mottled the -tawny prairies; waves of sunshine chased one another over the brown -grasses to the distant forest line; and as, with cheerful clatter of -pole and harness, the buggy dipped, swallow-like, over the long earth -rolls, her spirits rose. She laughed, chatted, within five miles was -involved in a mild flirtation. That was wicked! Of course! Afterwards, -in private, she mortified the strain of coquetry that made such shame -possible. Yet it was very natural. Given a handsome man, a pretty -maid, and isolation, what else should follow? Molyneux had travelled in -far countries and talked well of them and their savage peoples. He knew -London, the Mecca of womankind, like a book; abounded in anecdotes of -people and places that had been awesome names to her. Also he was -skilled in subtle flattery, never exceeding by a hair's-breadth the -amount which her vanity--of which she had a pretty woman's rightful -share--could easily assimilate. Small wonder if she forgot the grim -figure at the ploughtail. - -Forgetfulness, however, was not for Carter. As he followed the steady -rhythm of his furrows in heat and dust, heavy thought now loosened, now -tightened the corners of his mouth. But bitterness did not hold him -long. - -"Baby! You are going to get her. But that ain't the way to play the -game," he said, as the buggy disappeared. And she saw only friendliness -in his smile on her return that evening and the score of other occasions -on which he watched her goings and comings. - -He "played his game" like a man, and with a masterly hand. Never -obtrusive, he was always kind, cheerful, hopefully sympathetic during -Merrill's bad spells. At other times his dry humor kept her laughing. -He was always helpful. When the snows blanketed the prairies he -instructed her in the shifts of winter housekeeping--how to keep the -cabin snug when the blizzard walled it in fleecy cloud; how to keep the -frost out of the cellar and from the small stock of fruits in the -pantry. Together they "froze down" a supply of milk against the time -when it would be cruel to keep cows milking. A night's frost transmuted -her pans of milk into oval cakes, which he piled out-doors like -cordwood. A milk pile! The snows soon covered it, and how she laughed -when, drawing home wood from the forest, he mistook the pile for a drift -and so upset his load. - -Indeed, he wrought well! Kindliness, good temper, consideration, these -are splendid bases for love. Not that he ever hinted his hope. He was -far too shrewdly circumspect. It speaks for the quality of his wit that -he recognized that, given differences in rank and station, love must -steal upon her from ambush. Startled, she would fly behind ramparts -that would be proof against the small god's sharpest arrows. So he was -very careful, masking his feeling under a gentle imperturbability; sure -that, if not alarmed, she must turn to him in the coming time of -trouble. - -For Morrill had steadily failed since winter set in. During the -Christmas week he rallied, recovered voice and color, improved so much -that Helen yielded to his wish for her to attend a New Year's party at -Mrs. Leslie's; and as she kissed him good-bye there was nothing to -indicate that this was but the last flash, the leaping flame which -precedes the darkness. - -A genuine frontier party, it was to be an all-day affair, and Carter -drove her up in the morning. New Year had broken beautifully: clear, -bright, almost warm; for the first time in a month the mercury had -thawed long enough to register twenty-eight below. There had been no -wind or drift for a week, so the trail was packed hard, and as the -ponies swept its curves, balancing the cutter on one or the other -runner, rapid motion joined with pleasurable anticipation to raise the -girl's spirits to the point of repentance. - -"Here I'm laughing and chatting," she said, soberly, "when I ought to be -home with Bert." - -"Nonsense!" Carter glanced approvingly upon the glow which the keen air -had brought to her cheeks. "You haven't been out for a month, and you -were getting that pale and peaked. I shall be with him. Now you just -go in for a good time." - -His generous solicitude for her happiness, for she was going among -people he did not like, touched her. "I wish you were coming," she -said. Then she added, "Won't you come in--just for a little while--if -Mrs. Leslie asks you?" - -He returned her coaxing smile. "I'll see." And as the men were all -away, clearing a slough for skating, he stayed long enough to drink a -toast with Mrs. Leslie. - -That lady's eyes shone with soft approval as, standing by the table that -was already spread with glass, silver, and white napery, he bowed. "To -your continued health and beauty." - -"Now wasn't that pretty?" she exclaimed, after he was gone. "Do you -know, standing there in his furs, so tall and strong, he reminded me of -one of those old Norsemen who sometimes strayed into degenerate southern -courts. You are happy in your cavalier, my dear. If he asked me, I -believe I'd run away with him." And there was a sigh in her laugh. For -though a good fellow, Leslie was prodigiously chuckle-headed, and she -had moods when his simple foolishness was as unbearable as her own -frivolity--dangerous moods for a woman of her light timber. - -"I wish," she added, a little later, "that we could have persuaded him -to stay." - -He knew better. Striding, a conqueror, into southern halls, the -Norseman cut a mighty figure where he would have made but a poor -appearance as an invited guest. A thought that was expressed in Carter's -meditation on the homeward drive. - -"She meant it, shorely! But, bless her! you ain't to be drawn into such -a brace game. You'd look nice among those dudes." - -He had left no fire in his cabin, but he was not surprised when, afar -off, he saw his stove-pipe flinging a banner of smoke to the crystal -air. As yet the northland had not achieved refinements in the shape of -locks and bolts, and, coming in from a forty-mile drive from a Cree -village, Father Francis, the priest of the Assiniboin mission, had put -in and brewed a jug of tea. - -Easy, courteous in bearing, upright despite his silvered years, the -priest came to the door and welcomed Carter home. "Not much travel -beyond the settlements," he said. "It was pretty heavy going and my -ponies are tired. So I'll just accept the old invitation, son, and stay -the night--that is"--his mellow laugh rang out--"if my presence won't -make you anathema maranatha unto your neighbors." - -Carter knew them, their rigid dogmatism, the bigotry which made them -look askance at this man who, for thirty years, had fought the devil -over the face of a parish as big as an Eastern State. - -"I don't allow that they'll more than excommunicate me," he grinned, -"and if they do I reckon that you'd drop the bars of your fold." - -"Gladly!" the priest laughed. "They are always down, son." So, seated -by the humming stove with the jug steaming between them, the two settled -down to exchange the news of the neighborhood--an elastic term that -stretched over territory enough to set an Old-World kingdom up in -business. - -It was strange gossip. To the north of them--and not very far at that; -old Fort Pelly lay within twenty miles--the Hudson Bay Company, the -oldest of chartered traders, still lorded it over the tribes. In dark -woods, on open prairies stood the forts with their storehouses, fur -lofts waiting groups of Indians. There Factor, Clerk, the Bois Brules -still lived and loved in the primitive fashion, careless of the -settlement, first wave of civilization that was lipping around their -borders. So the talk ran on fur packs, mishaps by trail or river, -sinister doings in the far north, where the aftermath of the Metis -rebellion was still simmering. A wild budget! What between it and -Carter's choring, dark was settling as he and the priest entered -Morrill's cabin. - -Both started at what they saw. Despite Carter's optimism in Helen's -presence, he had been fully alive to Morrill's condition, yet--he now -stood, shocked, grieved in the presence of the expected. - -The sick man was wellnigh spent, yet the stroke of death brought only a -spark from his iron courage. "Another hemorrhage!" he whispered. -"Shortly after you left. No, don't go for Helen. She gets so little -pleasure. It is all over. I'll be all right to-morrow." - -But it was _not_ all over--though it would be "right" on the morrow. -The rising moon saw Carter's ponies scouring the ghostly snows. - -It had been a jolly party, skating in the afternoon, music and dancing -in the evening; then, as reserve thawed under the prolonged association, -they had fallen to playing Christmas games. Forfeits were being -"declared" as Carter reined in at the door, and Mrs. Leslie's merry -tones fell like blasphemy upon his ear. - -"Fine or superfine?" - -"Superfine? Then that must be Helen! Captain Molyneux will--" The -penalty was drowned in uproar, which also smothered his knock. Followed -loud laughter, and the door quivered under the impact of struggling -bodies. - -"Don't--please!" - -Now, under Christmas license no girl is particularly averse to being -kissed, and had Molyneux gone a little more gently about it, Helen had -probably offered no more than the conventional resistance. But when he -forced her head back so that her lips would come up to his with all the -abandon of lovers, she broke his grip, and when pinned again against the -door, struggled madly. - -"Don't!" - -There was no mistaking her accent. A flame of anger, leaping, -confusing, blinded Carter. His every muscle contorted. From his -unconscious pressure, hasp and handle flew from the door; as Mrs. Leslie -shrieked her surprise, his hand dropped on Helen's shoulder, and from -that small leverage his elbow sent Molyneux staggering back to the wall. - -The action cleared his brain, calmed the great muscles that quivered -under his furs with primordial impulse to break and tear. The flush -faded from his tan, the flash from his eye. The hasp lay on the floor -with the handle he had forgotten to turn. He saw neither them nor the -guests in their postures of uneasy astonishment. Before his mental -vision rose the scene he had just left, the priest kneeling in prayer -beside a dying man. - -The reaction of his shove had thrown Helen in against him, and her touch -recalled his mission. "Your brother--" he began, then paused. He had -meant to break it gently, but the confusion of conflicting emotions left -him nothing but the fact. "Is--" he went on, then, appalled by a sudden -sense of the ruthlessness of it, he stopped. But, reading the truth in -his eyes, she collapsed on his arm. - - -To Carter, waiting outside in the moonlight for Helen, came Molyneux, -and the door closing behind him shut in the hum of wonder and the -sobbing that came from the bedroom where the women were putting on their -wraps. - -Molyneux was smoking, though, to give him his due, he did not require -that invaluable aid to a cool bearing. Regarding the spirals, curling -sharply blue in the moonlight, he remarked, "I don't quite understand -your methods, my friend." The insolence of the "my friend" is -indescribable. "It may be fashionable in Stump town to announce bad -news by breaking down a gentleman's door, but with us--it savors of -roughness." - -"_Roughness?_" Carter scrutinized the dim horizon. "It wasn't all on -one side of the door--_my friend_." His mimicry was perfect. - -The captain hummed, cleared his throat. "A little Christmas -foolery--perfectly allowable." - -Carter's gaze shifted to the nimbus about the moon, a clear storm -warning. "Foolery becomes roughness when it ain't agreeable to both -parties." - -"Who told you it wasn't?" - -"My ear. If yours didn't--it needs training." - -Molyneux smoked out a pause that perhaps covered a slight confusion. -"Well, I don't care to accept you for a music-master. Under the -distressing circumstances, I shall have to let it pass--for the present. -But I shall not forget." - -Carter smiled at the moon. "Looks like storm?" - - - - - *VII* - - *MR. FLYNN STEPS INTO THE BREACH* - - -After putting forth a feeble straggle on the morning of the funeral, the -pale winter sun retired for good as the north wind began to herd the -drift over vast white steppes. Though fire had been kept up all night -in Merrill's cabin by Mrs. Flynn, who had come in to perform the last -offices, a pail of water had frozen solid close to the stove. After a -quarter of an hour in the oven, a loaf of bread yet showed frost -crystals in its centre at breakfast; a drop of coffee congealed as it -fell in the saucer. - -It was, indeed, the hardest of weather. By noon a half-inch of ice -levelled the window-panes with the sash; pouring through the key-hole a -spume of fine drift laid a white finger across the floor. Outside, the -spirit thermometer registered forty-five below. The very air was -frozen, blanketing the snow with lurid frost clouds. Yet, though a pair -of iridescent "sun-dogs" gave storm warnings, a score of Canadian -settlers, men and women, assembled for the service in the cabin. -Severe, silent, they sat around on boards and boxes, eying Mrs. Leslie -and other English neighbors with great disfavor, inwardly critical of -the funeral arrangements. For ceremony and service had been stripped of -the lugubrious attributes which gave mournful satisfaction to the -primitive mind. Helen herself, in her quiet grief, was a -disappointment; and she wore no black or other grievous emblem. Worse! -The casket-lid was screwed down, and, filched of their prerogative of -"viewing the corpse," they turned gloomy faces to the theological -student who had come out from Lone Tree. - -Here was an additional disappointment. Afterwards, in the stable, it -was held that he had not improved the occasion. Of Morrill, who had -been so lax in his attendance at occasional preachings as to justify a -suspicion of atheism, he could have made an edifying text, thrilling his -hearers with doubts as to whether the man was altogether fallen short of -grace. But there was none of this. Just a word on the brother's sunny -nature and brave fight against wasting sickness, and he was passed -without doubt of title to mansions in the skies. - -"I don't call that no sermon," Hines growled, as he thrust a frosty bit -into his pony's mouth. "Missed all the good points, he did." - -"Never heerd the like," said Shinn, his neighbor, nearest in disposition -as well as location. "Not a bit of crape for the pall-bearers. I know -a person that ain't going to be missed much." - -"I've heerd," another man said, "as he doubted the Scriptures. If that -is so--Is it true as the Roman priest was with him at the last?" - -Hines despondently nodded. "We'll hope for the best," he said, with an -accent that murdered the hope. - -Shinn, however, who never could compass the art of suggestion, gave -plainer terms to his thought. "There ain't a doubt in my mind. It's a -warning to turn from the paths he trod." - -"You needn't be scairt." From the gloom of the far corner, where he was -harnessing the team that was to draw the burial sleigh, Bender's voice -issued. "You needn't be scairt. There ain't a damn one of you -travelling his trail." - -Ensued a silence, then Hines snarled, "No, an' I ain't agoing to follow -him on this. If you fellows want to tag after priests' leavings, you -kin. I'm pulling my freight for home." - -"You're what?" - -Hines quailed as Bender's huge body and blue-scarred face materialized -from the gloom. "I said as 'twas too cold to go to the grave." - -"You did, eh? Well, you're going. Not that your presence is necessary, -but just because you ain't to be allowed to show disrespect to a better -man than yourself. Tie up that hoss. You're agoing to ride with me. -An' if there's any other man as thinks his team ain't fit to buck the -drifts"--his fierce eyes searched for opposition--"he'll find room in my -sleigh." - -So with Hines--albeit much against his will--heading the procession, a -long line of sleighs sped through the mirk drift to the lonely acre -which had been set apart for the _long_ sleep. A few posts and a single -wire marked it off from white wastes, and through these the drift flew -with sibilant hiss, piling against the mounded grave which Flynn and -Carter had thawed out and dug, inch by inch, with many fires, these last -two days. And there was small ceremony. King Frost is no respecter of -persons, freezes alike the quick and the dead. Removing his cap to -offer a short prayer, the student's ears turned deathly white; while he -rubbed them with snow, the mourners spelled one another with the -shovels, working furiously in vain efforts to warm chilled blood. -Roughly filled, the grave was left to be smoothed in warmer season; the -living fled, leaving the dead with the drift, the frost, the wind, stern -ministers of the illimitable. - -No woman had dared the weather. Lying in the bottom of a sled, under -hides and blankets, with hot stones at hands and feet, Helen had gone -home with Mrs. Leslie. Coming back from the grave she formed the -subject of conversation between Flynn and Carter, who rode together. - -To Flynn's inquiry Carter replied that, as far as he was aware, she had -no private means. Her father, a physician in good practice in a New -England town, had lived up to every cent of his income, and the -insurance he carried had been mortgaged to start the brother out West. - -"Not having any special training," Carter finished, "she had to choose -between a place in a store or keeping house for him." - -"It's no snap in them sthores," Flynn sighed. "Shmall pay an' big -temptations, they're telling me." Then, giving Carter the tail of his -eye, he added, "But there'll be nothing else for it--now?" - -"Oh, I don't know," Carter mused. "Flynn, are you and the other married -folks around here going to let your families grow up in ignorance? -Ain't it pretty nigh time you was forming a school district?" - -In the slit between his cap and scarf the Irishman's eyes twinkled like -blue jewels. Affecting ignorance, however, he answered, "An' phwere -would we be after getting a teacher in this frozen country?" - -"Miss Morrill." - -Flynn subdued his laugh out of respect to the occasion. "Jest what's in -me own mind. An' there'll be no lack av children for the same school, -me boy, when you--There, don't be looking mad! 'Tis after the order of -nature; an' I'm not blaming ye, she's sweet as she's pretty. Putting -you an' me out av the question, I'd do it for her. An' it shouldn't be -so hard--if we can corral the bachelors. But lave thim to me." - -And Flynn went about it with all the political sagacity inherent in his -race. "We'll not be spreading the news much," he told the married men -to whom he broached the subject. "Not a word till we get 'em in -meeting, or they'll organize an' vote us down." - -Accordingly the summons to gather in public meeting was issued without -statement of purpose, a mystery that brought out every settler for -twenty miles around. An hour before time, some fifty men, rough-looking -fellows in furs, arctic socks, moose-skins, and moccasins, crowded into -the post-office, which, as most centrally located, was chosen for the -meeting. - -The expected opposition developed as soon as the postmaster, who -presided, mentioned "eddycation." - -"More taxation!" a bachelor roared. "You're to marry the girls an' -we're to eddycate the kids!" - -"Right you are, Pete!" others chorused. - -But Flynn was ready. "Is that you, Pete Ross?" He transfixed the -speaker with his blue twinkle. "An' yerself coorting the Brown girl so -desprit that she don't get time to comb her hair anny more? - -"An' you, Bill MacCloud," he went on, as Peter, growling that he "wasn't -married yet," carried his blushing face behind the stove, "you that's -galloping your ponies so hard after the Baker girl. Twins it was, twice -running, in her mother's family, an' well ye know it. A public school -ain't good enough for you, Bill? Which is to be--a governess, or a young -ladies' siminery?" - -So, one after another, Flynn smote the bachelors. Had a man so much as -winked at a girl, it made a text for a sermon that was witty as -_risque_. - -Yet he was so good-tempered about it that by the time he had finished -grilling the last victim the first-cooked were joining their laughter to -that of the married men. - -Then Flynn turned his eloquence upon a common evil. Everywhere the best -of the land had passed into the hands of non-resident speculators, who -hindered settlement and development by holding for high prices. "Was it -a question of increased taxation?" Flynn asked. Then let the -non-residents pay. Under the law they could expend eight hundred -dollars on a building. Well, they would distribute the contracts among -themselves--one man cut logs, another hew them, a third draw them, and -so on! Every man should have a contract, an' who the divil would care -if taxes were raised on the speculators. - -It was his closing argument, however, that finished the bachelors. "Now -me an' Jimmy have spotted a teacher, a right smart young woman--" - -A howl of applause cut him short--the bachelors would call it settled! - -Thus it came to pass that as, a week or so after the funeral, Carter was -driving Helen from Leslie's back to her cabin, a deputation consisting -of Mr. Flynn and Mr. Glaves was heading in the same direction. - -All that week the cabin had stood, fireless, a mournful blot on the -snowscape, but though she was only to be there for the hour required to -pack her belongings, Carter had swept out the drift that morning and put -on the fires. So the place was cosey and warm. Yet, with all its -cheer, on entering, she relapsed into the first passionate grief. For -nothing is so vividly alive as the things of a dead person, and -everywhere her glance fell on objects her brother had used. Divining -the cause, Carter left her to have her cry out on pretence of stable -chores, and when he returned she was busily packing. - -So while she worked he talked, explaining her affairs as related to -himself through his partnership with Morrill. Their cattle were worth -so much, but as it would require a summer's grazing to fit them for -market, he would advance the money on her share. He did not mention the -fact that he would have to borrow it himself at usurer's interest. As -to the homestead: Land was unsalable since the bottom fell out of the -boom, but in any case it was advisable to hold for the values that would -accrue with the coming of the railroad. He would rent it, on settler's -terms, paying roadwork and taxes for use of the broken land. - -As, kindly thoughtful for her interests, he ran on, she rose from her -packing, grasped his hand impulsively, squeezed his arm to her bosom. - -"You have been so good!" The sunsets in her cheeks, the softness of her -glance, her touch, almost upset his reason. But he resisted a mad -impulse. - -"Nonsense!" he said, when he could trust himself to speak. "I'm going -to make money off you." - -"Really?" she asked, smiling. - -"Really," he smiled back. - -"I--wish you could," she sighed. "But I am afraid you are saying that -to please me. Well, you know best. Do as you please." - -Had he done as he pleased, the question of their mutual interests would -have been simply solved. But the time was not ripe. He was too shrewd -to mistake gratitude for love. - -"Now," he said, resolutely thrusting away temptation, "if it's any of my -darn business--what are your plans?" - -"My plans?" Leaning on the table beside him, she gazed dreamily upon -the frosted panes. The question forced in upon her the imminence of -impending change and brought a feeling of strong revulsion. The ties -that death forges are stronger than those of life. It was inexpressibly -painful, just then, to think of leaving the land which held her recent -dead. - -"My plans!" she mused, knitting her brows. "I haven't any--yet. Of -course I have relatives, back East. But as father did not like them, I -hardly know more than their names. I shall have to do something, but -Mrs. Leslie is so good. She won't hear of me leaving until spring. I -have heaps of time to plan." - -But having bucked trail all morning, the solution of her immediate -future just then heralded its arrival by the groan of frosty runners. - -"Me an' Jimmy," Mr. Flynn explained, after he had introduced his -co-trustee, "is a depytation. Being as it's the only crop the frost -won't nip, Silver Creek is going to raise a few legislators. We want -the young lady to teach our school." - -"But," Helen objected, when she had assimilated the startling news, "I -never taught school." - -"You'll nivir begin younger," Flynn comforted; to which he added, "An' -it's the foinest training agin the time ye'll have a few av your own." - -Mr. Glaves solemnly contemplated the blushing candidate. "You kin sum, -ma'am--an' spell?" - -"Oh yes," she assured him. "I graduated from high-school." - -"You don't say!" Both trustees regarded her with intense admiration, -and Glaves said, "We didn't expect to get that much for our money, so -we'll jest have you go a bit easy at first, lest there'll be some -sprained intellec's among the kiddies." - - - - - *VIII* - - *WHEN APRIL SMILED AGAIN* - - -"We'll begin right soon on the building," Mr. Glaves had said at -parting. So when the mercury began to take occasional flights above -zero in the last days of February, a gang turned loose in the bush. For -two weeks thereafter falling trees and the bell-like tinkle of a -broadaxe disturbed the forest silence. Then spring rode in on the back -of a Chinook wind and caught them hauling. Ensued profanity. Thawing -quickly, the loose snows slid away from the packed trails, causing the -sleds to "cut off"; the bush road was mottled with overturned loads. -Also the brilliant sun turned the snowscape into one huge reflector. -Faces frizzled. Dark men took the colors of raw beefsteak, fair men -peeled and cracked like over-ripe tomatoes. Yet they persisted, and one -day in early April stood off to look on their finished work. "Chinked," -sod-roofed, plastered, the log school-house gleamed yellow under the -rays of the dying sun--education, the forerunner of civilization, had -settled in the land. - -As his cabin was nearest the school, the honor of boarding the teacher -fell to the postmaster; and though her choice caused heart-burnings -among others who had coveted the distinction, it was conceded wise. For -not only did the Glaves's establishment boast the only partitioned room -in the Canadian settlement, but his wife, a tall, gaunt woman, excelled -in the concoction of carrot-jams, turnip-pies, choke-cherry jellies, and -other devices by which skilled housewives eke out the resources of an -inhospitable land. - -In the middle of April school opened; a dozen small thirsters after -knowledge arranged themselves in demure quiethood before authority that -was possessed of its own misgivings. Teacher and scholars regarded one -another with secret awe. But this soon wore off and they toiled -amicably along the road which winds among arithmetical pitfalls and -grammatical bogs to academic glories. It was milestoned by deputations, -that road, said visitations generally consisting of one person--mostly -unmarried and very red in the face--who inquired if the "kids was -minding their book," then went off chuckling at his own hardihood. Also -it seemed as though all the stray cattle for fifty miles around headed -for the school. Helen grew quite expert in ringing variations on the -fact that she "had not seen a strawberry steer with a white patch on the -left flank." Her smile always accompanied the answer, and the owners of -the hypothetical estrays would carry away a vision of a golden and -glorified school-ma'am. What of these pleasant interests, and an -unexpected liking which she had developed for the work itself, she -became very happy in a quiet way as time dulled the edge of her sorrow. - -But during the three months that preceded school opening the fates had -not been idle. Attending strictly to their knitting, they had run a -tangled woof in and out the warp of several lives. - -"She's so good!" Helen had exclaimed, in her gratitude of Mrs. Leslie; -but analysis of that lady's motives would have shown them not altogether -disinterested. - -Excluding a certain absence of principle that was organic, and therefore -hardly chargeable against her till philosophers answer the question, -"Can the leopard change his spots or the Ethiop his skin?" Mrs. Leslie -was not fundamentally vicious. Like the average of men and women, she -would have preferred to have been good, and, given a husband whom she -feared and loved, she might have developed into a small Puritan mightily -jealous for their mutual prestige. Lacking this, however, she was as a -straw in a corner, ready to rise at the first wind puff. If, so far, -she had lived in the fear of Mrs. Grundy, her conformity inhered in two -causes--no man in her own set had stirred her nature, and, till Helen -came, the winds of Opportunity had blown away from Carter. - -What drew her to him she herself could hardly have said; and if the -cause is to be found outside of the peculiar texture of her own nature, -it must be in the natural law which makes opposites attract. Nature -wars incessantly against the stratification which precedes social decay. -Whether of blood or water, she abhors stagnation. Her torrential floods -cleanse the backwaters of languid streams; passionate impulses, such as -Mrs. Leslie's, provide for the injection into worn-out strains of the -rich corpuscles that bubble from the soil. Carter's virile masculinity, -contrasting so strongly with the amiable effeminacy of her own set, -therefore attracted Mrs. Leslie, and, having now lassoed Opportunity--in -the shape of Helen--she hitched the willing beast and drove him tandem -with inclination. - -Either by intuition or knowledge subtly wormed from himself or others, -she learned Carter's habits, and no matter the direction of the drives -which she and Helen took together, it was pure accident if they did not -come in touch with him. Also at intervals they called at his cabin, -after one of which visits Mrs. Leslie put the house-cleaning idea into -Helen's head, insinuating it so cleverly that the girl actually thought -that it originated with herself. - -"Did you _ever_ see anything _so_ untidy?" she exclaimed, as on that -occasion they drove homeward. "Harness, cooking-pots, provisions, all -in a tangle. Bachelors are such grubby creatures! But really, my dear, -he deserves to be comfortable. Couldn't we do something?--hire some one -to--" - -If she had counted on the girl's grateful enthusiasm, it did not fail -her. "Let's do it ourselves!" she exclaimed. "I'd love to!" - -So, in Carter's absence, the two descended upon the cabin with soap, -pails, and hot water. Mrs. Leslie, the delicate, white-armed woman who -kept a girl to do her own work, rolled up her sleeves and fell to work -like a charwoman; and it is doubtful if she were ever happier than while -thus expending, in service, her reserve of illegal feeling. There was, -indeed, something pitiful in her tender energy. When, the cleaning -done, she sat demurely mending a rent in Carter's coat, she might have -been the young wife of her imaginings. - -Her sentimental expression moved Helen to laughter. "You look _so_ -domestic!" she tittered. "So soft and contemplative. One would -think--" - -Mrs. Leslie was too clever for transparent denial. "I don't care," she -answered. "I like him. He's awfully dear." And her expressed -preference affected Helen--helped to break down the last barriers of -caste feeling between herself and Carter. Till then she had always -maintained a slight reserve towards him, but when, coming in -unexpectedly, he caught them at their labors, she was as free and frank -with him as she had ever been with a man of her old set. The change -expressed itself in her hand-shake at parting, though it fell far short -of Mrs. Leslie's lingering pressure. - -In his surprise at the quantity and quality of the latter, Carter may -have returned it, or Mrs. Leslie may have mistaken the reaction of her -own grip for answer. Anyway, she thought he did, and on the way home -plead weariness as an excuse to indulge luxurious contemplations. She -fed on his every look, tone, accent, coloring them all with her own -feeling, an indulgence for which she would pay later; indeed, she was -even then paying, in that it was eating away her weak moral fibre as -acid eats a metal, preparing her for greater licenses. At first, -however, she was timorous--content with small touches, accidental -contacts, the physical sense of nearness when, as often happened, they -coaxed him to take them for a drive behind his famous ponies. - -But such slight fare could not long suffice for her growing passion. -Having observed, outwardly, the laws of social morality only because, so -far, they had consorted with inclination; knowing, inwardly, no law but -that of her own pleasure, it was only a question of time until she would -become desperate enough to balance reputation against indulgence. - -This came to pass a couple of months after Helen had opened up school, -and would have happened sooner but that even a reputation cannot be -given away without a bidder. Not that Carter was ignorant or -indifferent to her feeling. Two thousand years have failed to make man -completely monogamous and he is never displeased at a pretty woman's -preference. A condition had interposed between the fire and the tow. -In every man's life there comes a time when, for the moment, he is -impervious to the call of illicit passion. A first pure love bucklers -him like a shining aegis, and while certain pure eyes looked out upon -Carter from earth, air, and sky, wherever his fancy strayed, he would -not barter a sigh for the perishable commodity Elinor Leslie offered. -Having, however, formed her judgments of men from the weak masculinity -about her, she could not realize this. Imagining that he would come at -the crook of her finger, she tried to recapture Opportunity. - -"Mr. Carter was so kind and considerate of Helen that I think we ought -to take him up," she said to her husband one day; and Leslie, whose -good-natured stupidity lent itself to every suggestion, readily agreed. - -Unfortunately for her scheme, Carter proved unfelicitously blind to his -interest--as she saw it. Negatively, he refused to be "taken up," -offering good-natured excuses to all of Leslie's invitations. So -nothing was left but the occasional opportunities afforded by Helen's -week-end visits. And these did not always lend themselves to Mrs. -Leslie's purpose. When Molyneux brought her up--as happened half the -time--he made full use of his monopoly; while Carter, in his turn, often -drove her down to see Jenny in Lone Tree. - -To do the young lady justice, she held a fairly even balance between -those, her two cavaliers. According to the canons of romance she ought -to have fallen so deeply in love with one as to hate the other. Instead -she found herself liking them both. - -There was, of course, a difference in the quality of her feeling. -Strange feminine paradox! she was drawn to Molyneux by the opposite of -the qualities on which she based her feeling for Carter. At heart woman -is a reformer, and once convinced of his sincerity towards herself, the -fact that Molyneux was reputed something of a sinner increased rather -than lessened her interest. She experienced the joys of driving the lion -in leading-strings, ignoring the danger of the beast turning upon her -with rending fangs. Feeling her power, she tried to exercise it for his -good, and felt as virtuous over the business as if it were not a form of -vanity, and a dangerous one at that. Anyway, she rode and drove with -him so much that spring and summer that she practically annihilated Mrs. -Leslie's chances of seeing Carter. - -That lady could, however, and did observe him in secret. Riding from -home while Leslie was busy seeding, she would make a wide detour, -keeping the lowlands, and so bring up, unobserved, in a poplar clump -that afforded a near view of Carter's fields. - -One day will example a score of others. It was, as aforesaid, -seeding-time. Stripped of her snowy bodice, the earth lay as some brown -virgin, her bosom bared to man's wooing and the kisses of the sun and -rain. From her covert Mrs. Leslie could see his ox-team slowly crawling -upon the brown fields which, as yet, had known no bearing yoke. Those -days love was suggested by everything in nature. The air quivered in -passionate lines down the horizon. Warmth, light, love were -omnipresent. By every slough the mallard brooded. Overhead the wild -goose winged northward to bring forth her kind on the rim of polar seas. -Prairie cocks primped and ruffled on every knoll before their admiring -hens. To her it seemed that birds and beasts, flesh and fowl were -happier than she in their matings. Passionately, with bursting sighs, -she strained at her chains, wildly challenging the marriage institution -which has slowly evolved from the travail of a thousand generations. - -Hers was the old struggle between the flesh and the spirit, the struggle -that gave the sexless desert its hermit population. With this -difference: Ancestry had bequeathed to her no spirit. She had nothing -to pit against the flesh but her own unruly inclination. For her the -battle offered no meed of victory in the form of chastity triumphant. -The "dice of God were loaded"; she was striving against the record of -foolish or vicious fathers. And she played so hard! At times, little -heathen in spite of her culture, her eyes looked out upon him from the -spring greenery with the tender longing of a mother deer; again they -blazed with baffled fires; often she threw herself down in a passion of -tears. So, feeding upon its very privations, her distemper waxed until, -one June evening, it burst all bounds. - -Returning through late gloaming with his weekly mail, Carter came on her -holding her horse by the trail. Her voice, low yet vibrant, issued from -the gloom. - -"I'm afraid I shall have to trouble you for a ride, Mr. Carter; my -saddle-girth has burst." - -"Your hand is wet. It's blood!" he exclaimed, as he handed her in. - -"I fell on a sharp stone. Will you please tie this handkerchief." - -Bending to comply, he saw that the wound was clean-cut, and this may -have caused him to examine the girth before he threw the saddle on -behind. Then he knew--was certain as though he had seen her slash it -with the penknife that lay in the scrub near by. - -Picking up a stone, he pounded the severed edges on the wheel-tire; -pounded them to a frazzle while she looked on, her pupils dilated in the -half light, large, soft, black as velvet, intensifying a curious mixture -of expectation and content. But if she read consent in the pains he was -at with her excuse, alarmed surprise displaced expectation when, -climbing in, he drove on without a word. - -She glanced up, tentatively, once, twice, a dozen times at the erect -figure, but always he stared ahead. Again and again her scarlet lips -trembled, but she choked; sound halted on its bitten thresholds. Once -she touched his arm, but he drew sharply away and his hand rose and -flung beaded sweat from his brow. So, for a tumultuous age it seemed to -her, they whirled through the gathering night, rattled on until a slab -of light burst through the darkness. - -Followed Leslie's voice. "Hullo, Elinor! What's the matter?" - -She stiffened--Carter felt her stiffen as in a mortal rigor--but she -answered, in level tones: "Oh, nothing much. My saddle-girth burst and -Mr. Carter kindly drove me home. Won't you come in? Well--I'm ever so -much obliged. Good-night." - -Whirling homeward through the soft dusk, the tumult which had confused -Carter resolved into its elements, shame, chagrin, wonder, and disgust. -Each swayed him in turn, then faded, leaving pity. Flaring up in his -cabin, his match revealed only concern on his sunburned face. Taking a -packet from under the pillow of his bunk, he unfolded it upon the table, -exposing a glove, a ribbon, and some half-dozen hairs that gleamed, -threads of gold, under the lamplight. One by one he had gleaned them, -picking the first from the back of Helen's coat one day coming out of -Lone Tree. - -As he leaned over the trove there was no mawkish sentimentality in his -look, rather it expressed wonder, wonder at himself. For his life had -not always jibed with the canons. To him in their appointed seasons had -come the heats of youth; and if now they had merged in the deeper -instinct which centres on a single mate, the change had been -sub-conscious. The house he had built, the land he tilled, the herds he -had gathered about him were all products of this instinct, provision -against mating, for the one--when he should find her. Yet, though found, -he wondered; wondered at the powerful grip which that small hand had -wound into his heart-strings, that those golden threads should be able -to bind with the strength of cables. - -He did not puzzle long. Presently concern again darkened his -countenance, and he murmured, "Poor little woman! poor little thing!" - -Could he have seen her just then! Leslie was out talking horse with -Molyneux at the stables, so no eye saw her when, in the privacy of her -bedroom, she snatched the mask from her soul. At first stupefied, she -stared dully at familiar objects until her glance touched a portrait of -Helen on the dresser. That fired her passion, started the wheels of -torture. Dashing it to the floor, she ground her heel into the smiling -face, raving in passionate whispers; then flinging at length on the bed -she writhed like a hurt snake, struck her clinched fists into the -pillows, bit them, her own hands, soft arms. She agonized under the -scorn that belittles hell's fury. Truly, out of her indulgences, her -pleasant mental vices, the gods had twisted whips for her scourging! - -But if whips, as claimed, are deterrents of physical crimes, they -stimulate moral diseases; and whereas, previously, Mrs. Leslie had been -merely good-naturedly frivolous, she came from under the lashes a -dangerous woman--the more dangerous because there was no outward -indication of the inward change. With Helen, whom Molyneux brought up -at the next week-end, she was, if anything, kinder in manner, loving her -with gentle pats that gave no suggestion of steel claws beneath the -velvet. These, however, protruded, when the girl borrowed her horse to -pay a visit to Carter. - -Mrs. Leslie and Molyneux watched her away from the door. The lady had -plead a headache in excuse for staying at home, but her eyes were devoid -of weary languor. They had flashed as she averted them from the mended -saddle-girth. They glittered as she now turned them on Molyneux. - -"Calvert, you amuse me." - -"Why?" he asked, flushing. - -"Such devotion in that last lingering glance. It was worthy of a boy in -a spasm of calf-love rather than the dashing cavalryman who has tried to -add my reputation to the dozen that hang at his belt." - -Molyneux shrugged denial. "That's not true, Elinor. I'm too good a -hunter to stalk the unattainable." - -She laughed, bowing. "Do I sit on such high peaks of virtue?" - -"Or of indifference. It amounts to the same. Anyway, I saw that there -was no chance for _me_." - -Again she laughed. "What _significance_!" - -"Well--I'm not blind, as--Leslie, for instance. I only wonder." - -"At what?" - -"Your taste." - -She made a face at Helen's distant figure. "I might return your -thought. After all, Calvert, from our viewpoint, you know, she's only a -higher type of native--dreadfully anthropomorphic." - -"Exactly," he answered. "And that's why I"--pausing, he substituted an -adverb more in accordance with Mrs. Leslie's ironical mood--"like her. -She's fresh, sound, and clean of body and mind. Clings to the ideals we -chucked overboard a hundred years ago--lives up to them with all the vim -and push of her race. She stirs me--" - -"As a cocktail does a jaded palate," Mrs. Leslie interposed. "And a -good enough reason; it will serve for us both, since you are so frank, -Calvert. It is not your fancy I am laughing at, but your diffidence, -the morbid respectability with which you wait till it pleases her to -give that which you have been accustomed to command from others. It is -quite touching.... But why this timidity? Why do you linger?" - -"Because--" He paused, feeling it impossible to yield the real reason -up to her mockery; to tell that the girl had touched a deeper chord of -feeling than had ever been reached by a woman's hand; that she had -broken the cynical crust which had been formed by years of association -with the sophisticated women of the army set. He threw the onus back on -her. "That's rich, Elinor. Here, for months, you have fenced her -about; given her steady chaperonage; warned me to tone down to avoid -giving offence. Now you ask why? Have you forgotten how you rated me -for my violence in pressing her under the mistletoe?" - -"Pish!" She contemplated him scornfully. "I only advised caution. And -then--" She also paused; then, thrusting reserve to the winds, went on: -"And then she hadn't come between me and--my wish. Now she has. And -let me tell you, my friend"--she returned to her "cocktail" -simile--"that while you linger, inhaling virginal aromas, a strong hand -will slip in and drain the glass. Will you stand by and see her -sweetness sipped by another? Now, don't strike me." - -He looked angry enough to do it, but contented himself with throwing -back her question, "Why do you linger?" - -"Because I cannot drain my cup"--her lips quivered thirstily--"till -yours is out of the way. He has the bad taste to prefer her -spotlessness to my--" - -"Sophistication?" he supplied. - -She nodded. "Thanks. And he will continue to do so until you take her -out of the way. So--it is up to you, as the boys say. I think, too, -that she suspects that my interest is not altogether platonic, and as a -commodity enhances in value as it is desired by others, her liking may -be spurred into love. At present she's balanced. Likes you, I know. -Better strike while the iron is hot." - -"I would if I thought--" he began, then went on, musingly: "But I've -sized it up as slow-going. Didn't think she was the kind that can be -rushed." - -Mrs. Leslie snorted her disdain. "You? With all your experience! To -set her on a pinnacle! How long before you men will learn that we would -rather be taken down and be hugged. While the saint worships at the -shrine the sinner steals the image. I warrant you my big American won't -waste any time on his knees. However, I've warned--here comes Fred from -the stables." - -That was not the end of their talk. It recurred at every opportunity; -and by the time Helen returned Molyneux was persuaded against his better -judgment that he had gone too easily about his wooing. - -"What thou doest, do quickly," she whispered, as he went out to hitch to -take Helen home. And as they drove away she gazed long after them from -the door. - -What was she thinking? Given a woman of firmer texture, one whose acts -flowed from steady impulses, in turn the effects of settled character, -thought may be guessed. But Mrs. Leslie's light nature veered to every -wind of passion. She could not even hate consistently. Was she swayed -altogether by revenge, or, as hinted by her talk with Molyneux, was hope -beginning to rise from the ashes of despair? - - - - - *IX* - - *THE DEVIL* - - -If, as said, the devil can quote Scripture for his own purposes, it does -not follow that said purposes are always fulfilled. - -Molyneux had better have followed his intuition and "gone slowly." But -if, in brains and capacity, he towered above the average of his -remittance-fellows, the taint of his ancient blood yet showed in a -pliability to suggestion, a childish eagerness to snatch unripe fruit. -Whereas, by a quiet apology, he had long ago repaired his error in the -Christmas games, he must now commit greater foolishness. - -Consciously and unconsciously, in varying degrees, Helen aided his -blundering. She could not help looking her prettiest. But her -delicacies of cream and rose, the tender mouth, the bosom heaving under -its lace, did not require the accentuation of coquetry. It was the -healthy coquetry of the young animal, to be sure, unconscious, as much -as can be. She need not, however, have authorized his gallantries with -laugh and smile--would not, had she realized his limitations, his -confused morality, subordinance to passion, emotional irresponsibility. - -Afterwards she had but a confused notion how the thing came to pass. -They laughed, chatted, jested, while the tenderness in his manner -bordered more and more on the familiar. He had been telling her of the -strange marriage custom of an Afghan tribe and had asked how she would -like such a forceful wooing. - -"I think," she answered, "that a strain of the primitive inheres in our -most cultured women. I'm sure I could never love a man who was not my -master." - -She spoke thoughtfully, considering the proposition in the abstract; but -he, in his blind folly, interpreted concretely. In the sudden lighting -of his face she read her mistake. But before she could put out a hand -in protest, his arms were about her, his searching lips smothered her -cry. She fought wildly, spent her strength in a desperate effort, then -capitulated--lay, panting, while he fed on her face, neck, hair, her -lips. And it was well she did. Prolonged resistance would only have -provoked him to freer license. As it was, mistaking quiescence for -acquiescence, he presently held her off that his hot eyes might share -the spoil. - -She now fully realized her danger. His expression, the glassy look of -his eyes filled her with repulsion, but she summoned to her aid all the -craft that centuries of dire need have bred in her race. She smiled up -in his face, rather a pallid smile, but sufficient for his fooling. A -playful hand held him back from another kiss. - -"You are very rough," she whispered. - -"Consider the provocation," he answered, dodging the hand. - -She tried not to shrink. "You upset me," she murmured. "I am quite -faint. Is there any water near by?" - -She had noticed a slough ahead. Driving into it, he bent over and wet -her handkerchief. - -"Now if I could only drink." - -He stepped ankle-deep into the water. "Out of my hands." But as he -stooped, with concave palms, there came a rattle behind him. - -Uttering an oath, he sprang--too late. As he waded to dry land she -swung the ponies in a wide circle and reined in about fifty yards away. -While he looked sheepishly on, she wiped her face with the kerchief, -rubbed and scrubbed till the skin shone red where his lips had touched, -then tossed the kerchief towards him and drove on. - -A prey to remorse, shame, he stood gazing after. All said, a man's -ideals are formed by the people about him. A virtuous woman, a leal -friend, raise his standard for the race; and just then Molyneux would -have given his life to place himself in the friendly relation that -obtained between them a half-hour ago. - -But he could not. Nor could all of Helen's vigorous rubbing remove the -memory of those shameful kisses. Her bitten lips were scarlet when, a -quarter-hour later, she rattled up to Carter's shanty; her eyes were -heavy with unshed tears. - -Now here was a first-class opportunity for him to play the fool. An -untimely question, a little idiotic sympathy would have put him in a -worse case with her than Molyneux. But though inwardly perturbed, -shaking with anxiety, he kept a grip on himself. - -"Such reckless driving!" he exclaimed, harking back to her own words on -that first drive from Lone Tree. Then solemnly surveying Molyneux's hat, -which was perched funnily on the seat beside her, he went on, "Looks -like you've lost a passenger." - -His twinkle removed the tension. Looking down on the hat, she laughed; -and if, a minute later, she cried, the tears that wet his shoulder were -not cast against him. - -"If you will return the ponies," she said, when her cry was out--she had -already told him enough to explain the situation--"I'll stay here till -you come back and then you may drive me home--if you will?" - -"And I'll find him?" She laughed at his comical accent as he intended -she should. - -"About three miles back." - -"Any message?" - -She sensed the menace. "Oh no! If you quarrel, I'll never, never -forgive you. Now, please!" She placed her hand on his arm. - -"All right," he agreed, and, five minutes later drove off with the Devil -pony in leash behind. - -From afar Molyneux saw him coming and braced for the encounter, but -Carter had gotten himself well in hand. "Miss Morrill," he said, "is -real sorry she couldn't hold the ponies. But, Lordy, man, you oughtn't -to have gone picking flowers." - -"He's lying!" Molyneux thought, but followed the lead. "Yes, it was -careless. But, you know, it is always the unexpected that happens." - -"You're dead right there." - -The significance caused Molyneux to redden; but he tried to carry it off -easily. "And I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Carter. Can't I drive you -home?" - -Turning from cinching his saddle, Carter regarded him steadily. -"Obliged to you, sir. I'm a bit particular in my choice of company." - -The contempt stung Molyneux to retort: "You are plain-spoken, but I'm -told the trait is common in Americans. Fortunately for us outsiders, -your women are more complaisant." - -It only led him deeper. Giving a last vicious tug at the cinch, Carter -vaulted into the saddle. "Yes," he shot back, as he arranged his -bridle, "they make a mistake now and then, but it don't take 'em long to -find it out." And he galloped away with easy honors. - -Reining in at his own door half an hour later, he regarded with -astonishment a transformation which had occurred in his absence. -Instead of the woman, beautiful in her angry tears, a demure girl came -out to meet him. While he was gone she had bathed her red eyes, then, -to relieve a headache, had let down her hair and braided it into a plait -of solid gold. Thick as Carter's wrist, it hung so low that, obedient -to his admiring suggestion, she easily knitted it about her waist. - -"You look," he said, "more like school-girl than school-marm." - -With that simple coiffure displaying the girlish line of her head and -neck, she might, indeed, have easily passed for eighteen. It -accentuated a wee tip-tilt of her pretty nose, a leaning to the -_retrousse_ that had been the greatest trial of her youth and still -caused her occasional qualms. Could she have realized the piquancy it -lent to features that, otherwise, had been too regular or have known the -sensation it caused her companion as he looked down on it and her -eyelashes fluttering up from eyes that were wide and grave with -question. - -One glance reassured her. His unruffled calm, the ironic humor of his -mouth, all expressed his mastership of the late situation. Satisfied, -she mounted beside him when he had hitched the ponies and settled in -against him with a sigh of relief. Not that she had so easily forgotten -her late trouble. The injured droop of her mouth, the serious face -moved him to vast sympathy and anger. He longed to smooth the knit brow -with kisses, to take her in his arms and soothe her as a little child. -For a second time that day her mouth stood in hazard, but, bracing -himself against temptation, he tried to wean her from her brooding by -ways that were safer if less sweet. - -"Any one," he said, twinkling down upon her, "would think you'd lost -your best friend--" - -"Instead of my worst," she anticipated. - -"Glad you put it that way." He nodded his satisfaction. "And since you -do, why waste regrets? Jest wipe him clean off your books." - -"It is bitter to learn that you have been deceived," she answered. -"More bitter to feel yourself misread. Most bitter"--her voice dropped -to a whisper--"to learn it in such a shameful way." - -He did not say, "I warned you." Only his big brown hand closed on hers -with a sympathetic squeeze that almost expelled the pain in her heart. -She did not withdraw it; rather she drew in closer, and thus, hand in -hand, they rattled south over the vast green prairies which now were all -shotten with the iridescence of myriad flowers. The trail wound through -seas of daisies, bluebells, white tuft. Slender golden-rod trembled in -the breeze; dandelions and tiger-lilies flaunted their golden beauty -under turquoise skies. It was, indeed, difficult to remain sad with -such company in such surroundings; for not content with mute sympathy, -he strove to divert her thought by talk of the animals or plants which -they saw or passed, astonished her with his wide knowledge of curious -traits in their nature or history. So, gliding from subject to subject, -he weaned her from her trouble, and so, by easy stages, came to speaking -of himself, modestly introducing the subject with a letter. - -It was from the office of the traffic manager of the trunk line -acknowledging a bid for tie and trestle contracts for the projected -branch through Silver Creek. While Cummings, Hines, and their confreres -were fulminating against the railroad pantheon, Carter had ridden over -the spruce ranges of the Riding Mountains, had secured options on -cutting permits from the provincial government, had driven down the old -survey, and then submitted an estimate which caused the construction -department of the railway to gasp its astonishment. - -The chief engineer even carried the estimate to the traffic manager. -"Ties and timbers, this fellow Carter comes within a few thousand feet -of old Sawyer's estimate," he said. "Moreover, he is ready to deliver -the goods. Gives references to the Bank of America, which is to finance -his enterprise. Who is he?" - -One would hardly expect the traffic manager to have remembered, but he -had; and thus it came about that the postscript of the letter was in his -own big sprawl. He regretted the fact that construction had been put off -for another year, "but," he added, "I have placed your bid on my own -files and shall see that it receives the earliest consideration when we -are ready for construction." - -Helen exclaimed her satisfaction. "I'm so glad. I never knew that--you -could do this kind of work. Why didn't you tell me? I'm so interested. -Will it be a large contract?" - -Her eyes testified to her words, and as, obedient to her wish, he ran on -giving details, they grew larger and more luminous. A touch of awe -dwelt in their hazel depths. Feeling always the attraction of his fine -physique, respecting his strength of will, clean character, he now -commanded her admiration on another score. Was he not proving himself -"fit" in the iron struggle of an economic age? And she, delicate bloom, -crowning bud of the tree of evolution, being yet subject to the law -that, of old, governed the cave maiden in her choice of a mate, felt the -full force of this last expression of his power. - -As never before, she responded to his thought and feeling. When, after -a sudden lurch, he left his supporting arm on the rail across her waist, -she did not draw away; nay, she yielded to a luxurious sense of -protection and power, leaning in against his shoulder. That day all -things had conspired in his favor--even her pique at Molyneux--and now -the rapid movement, caressing sweep of the wind, riot of color and -sunlight, all helped to influence her judgment in a situation that was -rapidly approaching. - -It lay, the situation, in a deep pool, ten feet below the bank of Silver -Creek. As before noted, Death and the Devil, those lively ponies, were, -as Carter put it, "worth watching" any and all the time on the dead -level, and the fact that he held a loose line on them running down trail -into the valley proved how very, very far he had departed from his usual -imperturbable mood. Small wonder, for the hazel glances he had -sustained this last hour would have upset the coolest head. But if his -condition was perfectly natural, so also was the innate deviltry that -caused the ponies to bolt the trail and plunge over the aforesaid bank. - -Helen could never tell just how it happened. After two seconds' furious -bumping, she felt herself lifted bodily. Followed a crash as they fell. -That was the impact of the buggy wheel with Carter's head. The arms -loosened as she took the icy plunge, then came a half-minute's -suffocating struggle while the current was carrying her out to the -shallows. Wet, draggled, she stumbled shoreward; then, as the water -cleared out of her eyes, she turned and plunged wildly back. Face -downward, Carter was floating over a two-foot shallow and another second -would have carried him into a longer and deeper pool. - -As for him, returning consciousness brought him sensations of something -soft under his splitting head--that was Helen's bosom; of arms about his -neck; lips that wildly kissed his and which opened with a glad cry when -he moved. - -"Oh, I thought you were dead!" - -For one blissful moment she allowed him to gaze in at the clear windows -of her soul; then remembering the unusual but effective restorative she -had used in the case, she flamed out in sudden colors, the banners of -discovered love. Never was maid in such a predicament! Was it fair to -expect that she would let fall a head that had been damaged in her -cause? She could only wait until, having fed his eyes full on her sweet -distress, he reached up and pulled her blushing face down upon his own. -The sun, the wind, the rippling water alone witnessed her surrender. -After a while a grizzled badger peered at them from his hole, pronounced -them harmless, and so came forth upon his errands. A colony of gophers -laid aside serious business to note, heads askew, loves that differed so -little from their own. A robin cried shame upon them from a willow near -by. But they were not ashamed. An hour slid by without either thinking -of such sub-lunary matters as damaged heads or wet clothing; at the end -of which Death and the Devil, having accomplished the complete -destruction of the buck-board, came back to look for their -master--probably associating him with the evening feed of oats--and fell -to cropping the grass along the creek. - -Then she spoke, softly, blushing again. "You must think me shameless, -but--I did--I really thought you were dead." - -"Ain't you glad I'm not?" She never noticed the "ain't," this young -lady who had originally sized him as an underbred person. - -She did not answer, but he mightily appreciated the sudden tightening of -her arms. "But what must you think of me?" - -He told all--of his resolution the moment he saw her on the Lone Tree -platform; of his hope, fears, dark despair, the hell he had suffered on -Molyneux's account. A soft hand cut short this last revelation, and -immediately they fell again into one of love's deep silences, an -eloquent pause that endured until the westering sun threw long shadows -across the creek. Then, rising, he caught the ponies and arranged -saddles with blankets and straps from the broken harness, while she -looked on with soft attention. - -Mounted, they paused and looked back at the stream, ruby red under the -dying sun, the clay bank, the bordering willows, then they kissed each -other soberly and rode on. Dusk was blanketing the prairies when they -drew up at Flynn's cabin, yet it was not too dark for Mrs. Flynn's sharp -eyes to pick their secret. - -"It's the new school-ma'am ye'll need to be looking for," she told -Flynn. "Why? Man, didn't ye see him look at her, an' her that lovely -red, her eyes pretty as a mother deer's, an' her voice soft an' cooing -as a dove's. Flynn, Flynn! ye've forgotten your own courting." - - -One fine morning, two months later, Molyneux's drivers spun out of his -stable enclosure and rattled south at a pace that did not keep up with -their driver's impatience. - -These two months had certainly been the unhappiest of his life. A man's -opinions, philosophy, must, if they have vitality at all, be formed upon -the actions of those about him, upon the phenomena which life presents -to his reason. This, however, does not altogether annul the force of -those ideals of conduct for himself and others which were learned at his -mother's knee. Always they persist. Granted that loose life may smother -the plant so that it produces neither fruit nor leafage, yet the germ is -there--the assurety that beyond the rotten pale of fast society lies a -fair land where purity, chastity, goodness, the virtues one firmly -incarnates in the person of mother, sister, or girl friend, do grow and -flourish. Under the foulness of the most determined roue lies the -ineradicable belief that had Lot sought righteousness among the women of -Sodom that wicked city had never been destroyed. One clean, wholesome -girl will shake a man's faith in baseness, torture him with a vivid -sense of his own backslidings, and now that passion's scales were fallen -from his eyes, Molyneux appreciated at their full worth the naive -mixture of innocence and womanly wisdom, the health, strength, and -wholesomeness of character that set Helen apart from his light -acquaintance. - -"Fool! fool!" he had told himself again and again. "She is worthy of a -king--if one could be found worthy of her. And you had a fair chance! -Oh, you fool!" - -Nor had he failed to write her a letter of apology. He had done that in -the first agonies of repentance, six weeks ago, and, receiving no -answer, had taken the ensuing weeks to screw his courage to the point of -asking pardon in person. But now that it was there he was possessed of -a wild exhilaration that took no thought of refusal. She could hardly -fail to pardon a suppliant for crimes that were instigated by her own -beauty, and one so becomingly repentant! Full of the consciousness of -his own virtuous intention, it was quite easy for him to credit Helen -with the magnanimity that would be its reciprocal feeling; and this once -established, himself pardoned in thought, he passed to day-dreams. Her -smile, the sweet tilt of her pretty nose, her glory of golden hair, her -every physical and mental charm, passed in mental review, beguiling the -tedium of the trail till the school-house thrust up over the horizon. - -Then his mood changed. Its squat, obtrusive materiality thrust into his -consciousness, shattering the filmy substance of his dreams, and as he -noticed the closed windows, shut door, doubt replaced elation, -depression, the black antithesis of his late mood, settled down upon -him. - -As he sat staring a voice hailed him. "Been riding ahint of you this -half-hour, but you never looked back. Fine haying weather, ain't it?" - -Startled, Molyneux turned to find Jed Hines surveying him with an -irritating smile. His expression plainly revealed that not only did he -know Molyneux's errand, but that he was viewing it under the light of -humorous secret knowledge. Restraining an impulse to remodel the -expression, he said, nonchalantly as he could: "What is the matter here? -School closed?" - -Hines nodded. He had all the Canadian's traditional hate of the -remittance-man; Molyneux, in especial, he detested, because, perhaps by -his superior shrewdness, he gave less cause for contempt than the race -in general. That he had paused to speak was proof sufficient that he had -unpleasant news. He would, however, take his own time in delivering -it--prolong the torture to the limit. - -"Midsummer holidays," he laconically answered. - -Molyneux ignored his curtness. "Miss Morrill at Glaves's place, do you -know?" - -Jed's grin widened. "You hain't heard, then?" - -"Heard what?" - -Jed gazed off and away over the prairies. "No, you won't find her at -Glaves's." - -How Molyneux longed to spoil the grin. But a deadly anxiety constrained -him. "Where is she, then?" - -"Nowheres around here." - -"Do you know?" - -"You bet!" The grin gave place to malignant satisfaction. "Yes, I -know--that is, I kin guess, though I wouldn't if I thought it would do -you any good. As it won't--Let me see--she was married a week ago by -the Roman priest. Jedging by averages, I reckon as you orter find her -in Carter's arms." - -If he had expected his news to produce a disagreeable impression he was -not disappointed, for its visible manifestation landed full in his face, -and he dropped flat on his shoulders. Not lacking a certain wolf -courage, primitive ferocity of the cornered rat, he sprang up, lunged at -Molyneux, and went down a second time. Then he stayed, watching until -the other had jumped into his buggy and driven away. - -"I never saw the devil!" he muttered, shaking his fist, "but your face, -jes' then, came mighty near the preacher's description." - - - - - *X* - - *FRICTION* - - -Once upon a time a man wrote a book that proved how easily a cultured -Eastern girl might fall in love with and marry a Western cow-boy. It -was a beautiful story, about people who were beautiful or picturesque -according as they were good or bad, but it ended just where, in real -life, stories begin. After the manner of fairy tales, the author -assured us that the girl and the cow-boy lived happily ever after. Now -I wonder if they did? - -A year later a big bull-fly thudded at the screen door of Carter's cabin -in vain efforts to enter and take toll of Helen's white flesh. By the -gentlemen who ordain the calendar, a year is given as a space of time -between points that are fixed, immutable as the stars. Sensible folk -know better. Years vary--are long or short according to the number, -breadth, and depth of the experiences their space covers. This year had -marked Helen. She was fuller lipped, rounder, enveloped by the sensuous -softness of young wifehood. Sitting at table with her white blouse -tucked in at the neck for coolness, she had never looked prettier. But -granting these attributes of her changed condition, a keen observer -would have missed that gentle brooding, ripe fruit of content which -exhales from the perfectly mated woman. As, time and again, her glance -touched Carter, sitting opposite, she would sigh, ever so gently, yet -sigh; the direction of her glance told also that her discontent was -associated in some way with his shirt-sleeves, rolled to the elbow, and -his original methods in the use of his knife and fork. Grasping these -implements within an inch of their points, he certainly secured a mighty -leverage, yet undoubtedly lost in grace what he secured in power, -besides pre-empting more elbow-room than could be accorded to one person -at a dinner-party. - -"Tut! tut!" she observed, timidly, after tentative observation. - -"Oh, shore! There I go again!" His quick answer and the celerity with -which his hands crawfished back to the handles told of many corrections; -yet five minutes later they had stolen out once more to the old familiar -grip. - -She sighed again. It was not that she had wished to hobble her -frontiersman, to harness him to the conventions. Her feeling flowed -from a larger source. Believing him big of brain and soul as of body, -she would have had him perfect in small things as he was great in large, -that her ideal should be so filled and rounded out as to leave no room -for sighs. To this end she had, from the first, attempted small -polishments, which he had received with whimsical good-humor that took -no thought of how vital the matter was with her. Had he realized this he -might have made a determined effort instead of a slack practice which -flows from easy complaisance; but, not realizing it, he made no headway. -In these last months she had gained insight into that philosophical -axiom: It is easier to make over a dozen lovers than one husband. -Unlike the girl in the aforesaid beautiful story, she had begun -reconstruction at the wrong side of the knot. - -Not that this unwelcome truth would or could, of itself, have affected -her love in quality or quantity. At times she agonized remorsefully over -her tendency to criticism, tutoring herself to look only for the large -things of character. Again, when, of nights, she would slip to his arms -for a delightful hour before retiring, she would wonder at herself: -every last vestige of discontent evaporated with her murmured sigh of -perfect happiness. These were great moments for both. Lying so, she -would look up in his bronzed face and listen while, in his big way, he -talked and planned, unrolling the scroll of their future--listen -patiently until he became too absorbed, when she would interrupt with -some kittenish trick to draw him back into the delightful present. -Pretty little tricks, loving little tricks, that one would never have -dreamed lay hidden under the exterior of the staid young school-ma'am. - -But these, after all, were moods, and there had been other and real -cause of discontent. First, the railway gods had again broken faith -with the settlers; and every cent that Carter could raise or borrow had -been required to meet rents on his timber concessions. Though not in -actual want, they had had to trim expenses, reduce their living to the -settler scale. Having all of a pretty woman's natural love of finery, -Helen could see no way of restoring her depleted wardrobe. Moreover, -there was the choring, washing, milking of cows, feeding of calves, -inseparable from pioneer settler life--a burden that was not a whit the -less toilsome because self-assumed. - -Carter would have spared her all that--was, indeed, angry when, coming -in late one night, he caught her toiling at the milking. "I didn't know -it was so hard," she pleaded, holding up her swollen wrists. "But I -couldn't bear to see you come in, tired, at dark, then go on with the -chores while I sat in the house." - -He had made her promise not to do it again. But she did, and his -protests, vigorous at first, slackened, until, finally, the choring had -come to be regarded as hers as a matter of course. - -Even the climate was against her, conspiring against her peace of body -if not of mind. The previous winter had been the bitterest in a score -of years, temperatures ranging from forty below zero, with a yard of -snow on the level, fifty-foot drifts in the bluffs, and hundred-mile -winds to drive cold and snow through the thickest of log walls. For -days she had sat in her furs by the red-hot stove, while the blizzard -roared about the cabin, walling it in fleecy snows--sat listening to the -agonized shout of wind-blown trees, the squeal of poplar brake, the -smash of rent branches, the thunderous storm voice that was spaced only -by distant crashes as the lords of the forest went down to stiff ends. -North, south, east, west had veered these terrible winds, freighting -always their inexhaustible snows. The trails were blown from earth's -face; solitary blotch, their cabin rose like a reef from an ocean of -whiteness; and they, castaways, were practically divorced for days, and -sometimes weeks, from all communication with their kind. Hardly less -terrible had been the calms, the vast frozen silences as of -interplanetary space that followed the blizzard, ruling the snowy -steppes. They filled her with a terrifying sense of the illimitable, -those silences, vivid as though she, a lonely soul, were travelling -through vast voids of time and space. She shrank under them, afraid. - -Followed a mosquito year in a mosquito country. Fattened by the heavy -snows, stagnant sloughs held water till late in the summer and so bred -the pests by myriads of myriads. Of nights the tortured air whined of -them. By day their cattle hung about the corrals, cropping the grass -down to the dust, or if they did wander farther afield, came galloping -madly back to the smudges. For two months any kind of travel had been -impossible; clouds of the pests would settle on hands, face, neck -quicker than one could wipe them off. Milking and choring had to be done -under cover of a thick reek to an accompaniment of lashing tails, with -frequent and irritating catastrophes in the way of overturned pails. -The acrid odor of smoke clung to everything--hair, clothing, flesh; the -cabin was little better than a smoke-house until the heat had mitigated -the pests while adding its own discomforts. - -It was a dull life enough for men whose tasks were broken by periodical -trips to market; it was martyrdom for housefast women. Always around -the shanty mourned the eternal winds of the plains. Wind! Wind! Wind -in varying quantity, from a breeze to a blizzard, but always wind. Its -melancholy dirge left a haunting in the eyes of men. Its ceaseless moan -prepared many a plainswoman for the madhouse. - -With bright hope at heart to gild the future, she might have endured -both discomfort and drudgery, but the postponement of construction work -on the branch line had killed immediate hope. With dismay she realized -a certain coarsening of body and mind, a thickening of finger-joints, -roughness of skin, an attenuation where milking had turned the plump -flesh of her arms into gaunt muscle. And to her the thought of that -far-off summer day recurred with increasing frequency--would this -equilibration with environment end by leaving her peer to the scrawny, -flat-chested women of the settlements? She who had excelled in the -small arts--music, painting, modelling in wax and clay? Her past, in -such seasons of depression, seemed now as that of some other girl--a -girl who had worn pretty dresses and been admired and petted by father, -brother, and friends. Of all her gifts, her voice, a sweet contralto, -was only left her; and of late it had naturally attuned itself to her -sadder moods. So she had felt her life shrink and grow narrow, until -looking down the vista of frozen winters, baking summers, they seemed, -those weary years, to draw to a dull, hard point, the wind-swept acre -with its solitary grave. Conditions had certainly combined to produce -in her a subconscious discontent that might develop into open revolt -against her lot at the touch of obscure and apparently insignificant -cause; they reinforced and made dangerous the irritation caused by his -little gaucheries. - -As aforesaid, her dark moods alternated with spasms of remorse--fits of -melting tenderness in which she condemned herself for her secret -criticism of him. Peeping through their bedroom window only the -preceding night, the moon had caught her bending over his sleep. The -tender light absorbed his tan, softened the strong features without -taking from their mobility; deeply shading the hollows, it gave his -whole face an air of clear-cut refinement. Its wonderful alchemy -foreshadowed the possibilities of this life, lying so quiescent beneath -her eyes. For a long hour she held the vigil, while thought threw -flitting shadows athwart her face; then, stooping, she softly kissed him -under cover of her clouding hair. - -It was a momentous caress, registering as it did her acceptance of a -lowered ideal, marking her realization of the friction which follows all -marriages and is inevitable to such as hers. Yet it had not removed the -cause; that remained. It is easier far to overlook a great sin than a -daily gaucherie, to rise to vast calamity than to brook the petty -irritations which mar and make life ugly. The cause remained, surely! -To see her quiet and pensive at table this day, who would have dreamed -that the morrow would see the thin edge of the wedge driven in between -them? - -"There's to be a picnic in the grove by Flynn's lake to-morrow, Nell," -he said, as he rose from dinner. "Let's take a day off?" - -"All right!" she agreed; and the kiss with which she rewarded the -prospect of even such a slight break in the dulness of life may easily -be regarded as the first tap on the wedge. - -How quickly personality responds to atmosphere! When, next morning, -Helen climbed into the buck-board beside Carter, she was frankly happy -as a woman can be in the knowledge that she is looking fit for the -occasion. Cool, clean, and fresh in a billowy white dress of her own -laundering, excitement and Carter's admiring glances intensified her -naturally delicate color. As they rattled over the yellow miles, doubt -and misgiving vanished under the spell of present happiness. She -returned him eyes that were lovingly shy as those of their honeymoon; -was subdued, sedate, sober, or burst out in small trills of song as the -mood seized her. Not until she was actually upon the picnic-ground did -she realize the real nature of this, her first appearance at a public -function since her marriage. - -A clear sky and a breeze that set yellow waves chasing one another over -the far horizon had brought out the settlers in a fifty-mile -circle--even the remittance-men, who had been wont to spell amusement in -the red letters of the London alphabet, were there. Like most country -picnics, it was pseudo-religious in character, with a humorous speech -from the minister figuring as the greatest attraction. Amusements ran -from baseball and children's games for youth to love-making in corners -by shamefaced couples. - -Leaving Carter to put up his team, Helen carried their basket over to -where a crowd of officious matrons were arranging tables under the -trees, and so gained first knowledge of what was in store for her. The -latest bride, she was the centre of attraction, target for glances. -Approaching a group of loutish youths, she felt their stares, flushed -under the smothered laugh which greeted her sudden change of direction. -Girls were just as unmannerly. Ceasing their own rough flirtations, -they gathered in giggling groups to observe and comment on one who had -already achieved that which they contemplated. - -Nor was she more comfortable among the matrons. While she was teaching -school, the halo of education had set her apart and above them, but now -they wished her to understand that her marriage had brought her down to -their level. They plied her with coarse congratulations, embarrassed -her with jokes and prophecies that were broader than suggestive. Time -and again she looked, for rescue, at Carter, but he was talking railroad -politics in an interested group, did not join her till lunch was served, -and afterwards was hauled away to play in a baseball game--married men -_versus_ single. - -So she had but a small respite. With his departure the women renewed -their onslaughts, as though determined to beat down her personal reserve -and reave her nature of its inmost secrets. No subject was too sacred -for their joking--herself, her husband, the intimacies of their lives. -There was no satiating their burning curiosity; her timid cheeks, -monosyllabic answers, served only to whet their sharp tongues. Shocked, -weary, cheeks burning with shame, she sat on, not daring to go in search -of Carter and so brave again the fire of eyes, until, midway of the -afternoon, she looked up to see Molyneux and Mrs. Leslie approaching. - -It was the crowning of her humiliation. With the exception of a -duty-call on her return to Silver Creek, and which she had not returned, -it was the first time that Helen had seen Mrs. Leslie for more than a -year. "As you think best," Carter had said, when she had debated the -advisability of renewing the friendship. "You wouldn't care to meet -Molyneux again, would you? He's sure to be there." And, departing from -his usual sane judgment, he made no further explanations, said nothing -of his drive in the dusk with the love-sick woman, knowledge of which -would surely have killed Helen's friendly feeling. Lacking that -knowledge, she had pined for the one woman who could give her the social -and intellectual companionship her nature craved, pined with an -intensity of feeling that was only equalled by her present desire to -avoid a meeting. - -If they would _only_ pass without seeing her, she prayed, bowing her -head in shame. But Mrs. Leslie had been watching from afar. "Poor -little thing!" she had exclaimed to Molyneux. "Alone among those -harpies! Come, let's rescue her!" And whatever her motive, the kiss -she bestowed on the blushing girl was warm and natural. "Why, Helen," -she said, "whatever are you doing here? Come along with us." - -"We are going to organize a race for three-year-old tots, Mrs. Carter," -Molyneux explained. "We really need your assistance." - -His deferential air as he stood bareheaded before her, the languid -correctness of his manner, even the aristocratic English drawl, pierced -that atmosphere of vulgarity like a breath of clean air. The easy -insolence with which he ignored the settler women was as balm to her -wounded pride. She recovered her poise; her drooping personality -revived. - -"I should like to--very much," she answered, adding, a little timidly, -"But I was waiting for my husband." - -"Dutiful child," Mrs. Leslie laughed. "Well, he is so busy running up -the batting average for the Benedicts that he has forgotten you. Come -along!" - -"We might go round--" Helen began, tentatively, - -She would have finished "his way," but, glancing over at the game, she -saw that in his interest he really had forgotten her. "Very well!" she -substituted; and, rising, she strolled off between the two, passing -within a few yards of Carter. Busy with his game, he did not see her, -nor would have known what company she was keeping but for Shinn, a near -neighbor of Jed Hines and fellow of his kidney. - -"Your wife," he remarked, "seems to be enjy-ing herself." His sneer -caused a titter among both players and spectators, but before it -subsided Carter came quickly back. Throwing a careless glance after -Helen, "That's more'n I can say for yourn." - -The titter swelled to a roar that caused Helen to look back. Mrs. -Shinn, poor drudge, had not strayed twenty feet from her cook-stove in -as many squalid years, as every one knew well. Grinning evilly, Shinn -subsided, while, after carelessly waving his hand at Helen, Carter -returned to his batting. If he disapproved of her escort, not a lift of -a line betrayed the fact to curious eyes--not even when he drove around -and found her still with Molyneux and Mrs. Leslie. - -They were both silent on the homeward drive. In Helen's mind Carter was -associated with the coarse and sickening humiliations of the day. As -never before, she felt the enormous suction from below; she battled -against the feeling with the desperation of the swimmer who feels the -whirlpool clutching at his heels. - -Her mood was defiant, and if, just then, he had taken her to task for -her truancy, she would have flamed up in open revolt. But he did not. - -"You are tired," he said, very gently, when the ponies had run them far -out from the press of teams and rigs. She appreciated that; yet when he -slipped an arm about her waist she moved restlessly within its circle. - -The wedge was well entered. - - - - - *XI* - - *THE FROST* - - -One noon, a week after the picnic, Carter stood and looked out over his -hundred-acre field of wheat from his doorway. A golden carpet, sprigged -with the dark green of willow bluffs, it ran back into a black, -environing circle of distant woodland. As a vagrant zephyr touched it -into life, Helen remarked, looking over his shoulder: - -"The serrated ears in restless movement give it the exact appearance of -woven gold. Isn't it beautiful!" - -The dramatist loves to make great events follow in rapid sequence. It -is the need of his art. But in life the tragic mixes with the -commonplace. Even Lady Macbeth must have, on occasion, joked or talked -scandal with her handmaidens. And as these two looked out over the -wheat, there was naught to indicate the shadow which lay between them. - -"Finest stand I ever saw," Carter answered. "Five-foot straw, well -headed, plump in the grain; ought to grade Number One Extra Hard. We'll -make on that wheat, little girl." - -"Do you really think so?" - -He turned quickly. - -"Those women at the picnic---" She explained her dubious tone. "They -said you were foolish to put in so much wheat. 'What kind of a darn -fool is your husband, anyway?' that Mrs. MacCloud asked me. 'He kain't -never draw all that wheat to Lone Tree. Take him a month to make two -trips. 'Tain't no use to raise grain without a railroad. We folks -hain't put in more'n enough for bread an' seed.'" - -He laughed, as much at her clever mimicry as at Mrs. MacCloud's -frankness. "If they had put in more I wouldn't have sown any. Could -have bought it cheaper from them. But as they didn't-- Do you know -that every man in this settlement makes at least one trip a month to -Lone Tree during the winter? Well, they do, and they'll be glad to make -expenses freighting in my wheat. With grain at seventy a bushel, a load -will bring thirty dollars at the cars, and I can hire all the teams I -want at three a trip." - -"Why"--his foresight caused her a little gasp--"how clever! I should -never have thought of that." - -His eyes twinkled his appreciation of her wifely admiration, and, taking -her chin between his hands, he looked down into her eyes. "What's more, -when that wheat money comes in, you an' me 'll jest run down to Winnipeg -an' turn loose on the dry-goods stores." - -It was the first hint of his knowledge of the turning, dyeing, the -shifts she had made with her wardrobe, and he made a winning. The -knowledge that he had seen and understood caused the wedge to tremble -and almost fall out. - -"Can we--afford it?" she asked, willing now to go without a thing. - -"Don't have to afford necessities. Breaks me up to see you going shy of -things." - -For the last three days he had bestowed the parting kiss. This morning -he received it--a warm one at that--and as he strode off stableward, her -burst of singing echoed his cheerful whistle. She was quite happy the -next few days planning for their descent on the shops. She sang at her -work--warbling that was natural as that of the little bird which prinks -and plumes for its mate in the morning sunlight. Reflecting her happy -mood, Carter was humorously cheerful--so pleased and satisfied that she -stared when, one evening, he came in, gloomy and depressed. - -His black mood had come out of the east with a moaning wind that now -herded leaden clouds over dun prairies. For one day rain pelted down, -then, veering north, the bitter wind blew hard for a second day. That -evening it died, and a pale sun swung down a cloudless sky to a -colorless horizon. Under its cold light the wheat stood erect, -motionless, devoid of its usual sighing life. A hush, portentous of -change, brooded over all. - -From their doorway Helen heard Hines, three miles away, rating his dog. -"Hain't no more gumption than an Englishman, durn you! Sick 'em, now!" -followed the maligned animal's bark and the thunder of scurrying hoofs. - -"How clear and calm it is!" she commented, as Carter came up from the -stables. - -He glanced at the thermometer beside the door. "Too clear. I'm afraid -it is all off with the wheat." - -"Why? What do you mean?" - -He turned from her astonished eyes. "Frost." - -"Frost? You are surely mistaken? See how sunny it is!" - -Shaking his head, he laid a forefinger on the thermometer. "Six o'clock, -and the silver is down to thirty-five." - -At dusk it had lowered another degree, and throughout the northland a -hundred thousand farmers were watching, with Carter, its slow recession. -On the fertile wheat plains of southern Manitoba, through the vast gloom -of the Dakotas, to the uttermost limits of Minnesota, the mercury -focussed the interest of half a million trembling souls whose fire-fly -lanterns dusted the continental gloom. Prayers, women's tears, men's -agonized curses marked its decline, that, like an etching tool, graved -deep lines on haggard faces in Chicago, Liverpool, and London far away. - -At thirty-two Carter lit the smudges of wet straw, and simultaneously -the vast spread of night flamed out in smoke and fire. "I don't go much -on it," he told Helen. "But some believe in it, and I ain't agoing to -miss a chance." - -He was right. Pale thief, the frost stole in under the reek and -breathed his cold breath on the wheat. Holding his instrument, at ten -o'clock, in the thickest smoke, Carter saw that it registered -twenty-seven. Five degrees of frost and the cold of dawn still to come! -Raising the glass, he dashed it to pieces at his feet. - -It was done. Reverberating through the land, the smash of his glass -typified the shattering of innumerable fortunes, the crash of business -houses. The pistol-shot that wound up the affairs of some desperate -gambler was but one echo. Surging wildly, the calamity would affect far -more than the growers of wheat. Iron-workers, miners, operatives in a -hundred branches of industry would shiver under the cold breath of the -frost. For now the farmer would buy less cotton, the operative pay more -for his flour, the miner earn a scantier wage. - -True, the balance swings ever even. This year ryots of India, Argentine -peons, Egyptian fellaheen would reap where they had not sown, gather -where they had not strawed. Another year a Russian blight, Nile drouth, -hot wind of Argentine would swing prices in favor of the northland. But -in this was small comfort for the stricken people. - -"All gone!" Carter exclaimed at midnight. "The feathers are frozen -offen them bonnets." - -Helen sensed the bitterness under his lightness. "Never mind, dear," she -comforted. "I really don't care. You did your best." - -_He had done his best_! To a strong man the phrase stabs, signifying -the victory of conditions. He winced, as from an offered blow. It was -the last drop in his cup, the signal of his defeat. It marked the -destruction of this his last plan for her. He had not, in the -beginning, intended that she should ever set her hand to drudgery. His -love was to come between her and all that was sordid, squalid. If the -railroad contract had materialized, she should have had a little home in -Winnipeg where she might enjoy the advantages of her early life. He had -planned for a servant--two, if she could use them--and all that he asked -in return was that she should bring beauty into his life, adorn his -home, sweeten his days with the aroma of her delicate presence. In this -small castle of Spain he had installed his beauty of the sweet mouth, -golden hair, pretty profile; and now, out of his own disappointment, he -read reproach in the hazel eyes that looked out from the ruins. - -Long after her sleep-breathing freighted the dusk of their bedroom, he -lay gazing wide-eyed into the black future. A sudden light would have -shown his eyes blank, expressionless, for his spirit was afar, questing -for other material with which to rebuild his castle. In thought he was -travelling Silver Creek, from its headwaters in the timber limits to its -source where it flowed into the mighty Assiniboin. It was a small -stream--too small to drive logs except for a month on the snow waters. -But with a dam here--another there--a third on the flats--rough -structures of logs with a stone and gravel filling, yet sufficient to -conserve the falling waters! The drive could then be sent down from dam -to dam! During the night he travelled every yard of the stream, placing -his dams, and at dawn rose, content in his eyes. - -Slipping quietly from the house, he saddled the Devil and led him -quietly by while Helen still slept, and an hour later rode up to -Bender's cabin. The Cougar was also there, and from dubious -head-waggings the two relapsed into thoughtful acquiescence as Carter -unfolded his plans. - -"She'll go down like an eel on ice!" Bender enthusiastically agreed. -"All you want now is backing. Funny, ain't it, that nobody ever thought -o' that before? Say"--he regarded Carter with open admiration--"you're -particular hell when it comes to thinking. If I'd a headpiece like -yourn--" - -"You hain't," the Cougar coldly interrupted, "so don't waste no time -telling us what you might ha' done. Get down to business. I know a -man"--he thoughtfully surveyed Carter--"that financed half a dozen big -lumbering contrac's on the Superior construction work. He'll sire -anything that looks like ten per cent. an' this of yourn will sure turn -fifty. Come inside an' I'll write you a letter." - -What of the Cougar's inexperience with the pen, the morning was well on -when Carter rode back to his cabin. If Helen had looked closely she -might have seen the new resolution that inhered in his smile, but she -had been concerned with her own reflections. Somehow, things had not -appeared this morning as they did last night. Crude daylight shows -events, like tired faces, in all their haggardness, and their complexion -was not improved by the steam from her wash-tub. Time and again she had -paused to survey her hands, creased and wrinkled by cooking in hot -water. Her bare arms recalled her first party-dress, and set her again -in the sweet past. Beside it the present seemed infinitely hopeless, -squalid, dreary. As she rubbed and scrubbed on her wash-board, life -resolved itself into an endless procession of wash-days, and tears had -mingled with the sweat that fell from her face to her bosom. - -Noting her red eyes, Carter was tempted to disclose his new hope, but -remembered the failure of previous plans and refrained. As yet nothing -was certain. He would not expose her to the risk of another -disappointment. He rightly interpreted her sigh when he told her that he -would have to go down to Winnipeg on business about the timber limits, -and his heart smote him when, looking back, he saw her standing in the -door. Dejection resided in the parting wave of her hand, utter -hopelessness. - -That lonely figure in the log doorway stuck in his consciousness -throughout his negotiations, causing him to hustle matters in a way that -simply scandalized the Cougar's man, a banker of the old school. Yet -his hurry served rather than hurt his cause. While the very novelty of -it made him gasp, the banker was impressed. In private he informed his -moneyed partners that such a chance and such a man rarely came together. -"He's a hustler, and the profit is there," he said, in consultation. "A -big profit. We can cut lumber ten per cent under the railroad price and -yet clear twenty-five cents on the dollar." - -That settled it. Half a day later Carter was on his homeward way, -bearing with him the power to draw on Winnipeg or Montreal for moneys -necessary for supplies, men, and teams. Running home from Lone Tree, he -whiled away the miles with thoughts of Helen's joy. He pictured her, -radiant, flushed, listening to his news, and, quickening to the thought, -he raced, full gallop, the last mile up to his door. - -His face burst into sunshine as, in response to his call, he heard her -cross the floor. Then his smile died, and he stared at Mrs. Leslie. -With the exception of an occasional glimpse as they met and passed on -trail, it was the first he had seen of her since the soft summer evening -when she laid illicit love at his feet. But no hint of that bitter -memory inhered in her greeting. - -"How are you, Mr. Carter?" she cried, in her old, gay way. "I think you -are the meanest man in Silver Creek. Married a year, and neither you nor -Helen have set foot in our house. You are a regular Blue beard. But -you needn't think that you can hide from us forever. I just pocketed my -pride, ignored your snub, and made my third call. Yes"--she -emphatically nodded her pretty head--"the _third_, sir. But I forgive -you; come in and have some tea. Helen is down at the stables hunting -eggs to beat up a cake." - -Covering his vexation with some light answer, he drove on to the -stables, the life and light gone out of him, his face the heaviest that -Helen had ever seen. "She called," she answered his abrupt question, -"and I have to entertain her." Then, piqued by his coldness, she went -on: "For matter of that, I do not see why you should try to cut me off -from her companionship! She is the only woman I care for in the -settlements!" - -If he had only told her! But causes light as the falling of a leaf are -sufficient to deflect the entire current of a life, and it was perfectly -natural that, in his bitter disappointment, he also should give way to a -feeling of pique. The reason trembled to his lips, and there paused, -stayed by the resentment in her eyes. - -"As you see fit," he answered. "Now I have to drive over to see Bender, -on business." - -"Won't you wait for some tea?" - -"No. And don't wait supper. I may be late." - -Hurt, she watched him drive away; then, as he suddenly reined in, she -dashed the tears from her eyes. "Here's a letter for you," he called. -"Got it from the office as I came by." - -He nodded in answer to Mrs. Leslie's cheery wave as he rolled by the -cabin. It was more than cold, yet, sitting chin on hands, that lady -smiled cheerfully when Helen came up from the stable. "Don't apologize, -my dear," she laughed. "Men are _such_ fools. Always doing something -to hurt their own happiness. Just banish that rueful expression and -read your letter." - -"What's the matter?" The question was called forth by Helen's sudden -cry of dismay. She glanced at the wedding-cards that Helen offered. -"Hum! Old flame of yours, eh? These regrets will assail one." - -However, she knit her straight brows over the enclosure. In part, it -ran: "We were so pleased to hear of your wonderful marriage from your -auntie Crandall. It was just like you to announce the bare fact, but -she told us all about it. A railroad king! Just fancy! He must be -nice or our delicate Helen would never consent to bury herself in the -wilderness. Do you know I have been just _dying_ to see him, and now I -shall, for we are passing through your country on our way to the Orient. -Which is your station?" Followed sixteen pages of questions, -description of trousseau, and other feminine matters which Helen -reserved for future consumption. - -Could she have laid tongue, just then, on Auntie Crandall, that lady had -surely regretted her enlargements on Helen's modest statement of her -husband's prospects. Lacking that easement of feeling, she cried. This -visit capped her misery, brought the long record of misfortune, -discomfort, disaster to a fitting climax. - -"Poor child!" Mrs. Leslie patted her shoulder. "But why did you tell -her such crammers? It was the good auntie?" She tilted her nose. "For -the honor of the family, we lie, eh? Heaven help us! Your -friend--what's her name?--Mrs. Ravell--she's rich, of course? Thought -so--couldn't be otherwise--trust the malignant fates for that. Well--" -She glanced meditatively about the cabin. Instead of lime-washing the -logs, settler fashion, Helen had left them to darken with age, -ornamenting them with a pair of magnificent moose horns and other -woodland trophies. Tanned bear-skins covered a big lounge that ran -across one end; buffalo robes and other skins took the place of mats on -the floor. Mrs. Leslie nodded approval. "Not bad. Quite wild-westy, -in fact. You will simply have to live up to it. You have given up your -town-house for the present and are rusticating while your hubby directs -some of his splendid schemes for the regeneration of this section--" - -"Oh!" Helen burst in. "I couldn't say that. It would be--" - -"Lying? Nonsense, child! Have you a town-house? No! Well, what are -you kicking about?" Mrs. Leslie's descent to the vernacular was as -forcible as confusing. Before Helen had time to differentiate between -the status involved by "not having a town-house" and giving one up her -temptress ran on. "That is it. You are rusticating. Now, I can lend -you some of my things--glass, china, and so on. When do they arrive?" -She consulted the letter. "Hooray! Your husband will be gone all next -week, and they come--let me see: one, two, three--next Friday. Couldn't -be better." - -Helen blushed under her meaning glance. "No, no! It would be wicked." - -"Why not?" Mrs. Leslie laughed merrily. "They just dropped in and -there's no time to send for him. Quite simple." - -"Do you think I'm ashamed of him?" Helen asked, flushing. - -Mrs. Leslie trimmed her sails to the squall. "Certainly not. He's a -dear. You know I always liked him. But--if your friends were to make a -long stay it would be different. You couldn't hide his light under a -bushel. But a two days' visit? What could they learn of him in that -time? The real him? They would no more than gather his departures from -the conventional. I wouldn't expose him to unfriendly criticism. -Frankly, I wouldn't, dear, at the cost of a little fib!" - -The flush faded, yet Helen shook her head. - -"As you will." Rising, the little cynic shrugged as she drew on her -riding-gloves. "But at least take a day to think it over." - -"No!" Helen shook vigorous denial. "I shall tell him to-night." - -She was perfectly sincere in her intention, and if Carter had returned -his usual good-natured self she would certainly have told him. But Mrs. -Leslie's presence had angered him and destroyed his native judgment. He -remembered that this was the outcome of Helen's invitation to Mrs. -Leslie at the picnic, and his heart swelled at the thought that she -should, of her own volition, go back to friends whom she knew that he -despised. He felt the folly of his brooding, even applied strong -language to himself for being many kinds of a fool. But his reasonable -intention to open his budget of good news on his return was never -carried out because of the coldness of her reception. Nervous from her -own news, piqued by his curt leave-taking, she served his supper in -silence or answered his few remarks in monosyllables. Nothing was said -that night, and he retired without offering the usual kiss. - -There he offended greatly. Her woman's unreason would, for that, accept -no excuse. So when, after working off his own mood next morning, he -came in to breakfast, he found her still the same. Really offended, she -served him, as at the previous meal, in silence, and as, afterwards, she -went about her work, her lashes veiled her eyes, her lips pouting. - -It was their first real quarrel, and the very strangeness, novelty of -her mood made it charming. But when, under urge of sudden tenderness, -he tried to encircle her waist, she drew away, and, afflicted with a -sense of injustice, he did not try again. There again he made a -mistake. Justice has no concern with love. It is empirical, knows no -law but its own. She wanted to be taken and kissed in spite of herself, -as have all women on similar occasions, from the cave maidens down. - -It so happened that she was in the bedroom when he left the house, and -she did not see that he had taken with him the bundle she had packed the -preceding night. She still intended to mention the letter. Indeed, as -she heard his step on the threshold, she thought, "He'll stop at the -door for his clothes." - -But he did not; and hurrying out at the sound of scurrying hoofs, she -was just in time to see him vanish behind a poplar bluff. She called, -called, and called, then sat down and wept, the more miserable because -of a secret, guilty feeling of relief. - - - - - *XII* - - *THE BREAK* - - -For three days a brown smoke had hovered over the black line of distant -spruce. It was far away, fifty miles at least. Yet anxious eyes turned -constantly its way until, the evening of the fourth day, the omen faded. -Then a sigh of relief passed over the settlements. "Back-fired itself -out among the lakes," the settlers told one another. Then, being -recovered from their scare, they invidiously reflected on the Indian -agent who permitted his wards to start fires to scare out the deer. Nor -did the fact that the agent was blameless in the matter take from the -satisfaction accruing from their grumblings. - -That evening five persons sat with Helen at supper, for she had invited -the Leslies and Danvers, Molyneux's farm pupil, to meet her guests. For -her this meal was the culmination of days of anxious planning. To set -out the table she and Mrs. Leslie had ransacked their respective -establishments, and she blushed when Kate Ravell enthused over the -result. - -"What beautiful china!" she exclaimed, picking up one of Mrs. Leslie's -Wedgwood cups. "We have nothing like this." Then, glancing at the -white napery, crystal, and silver, she said, "Who would think that we -were two thousand miles from civilization?" - -It was, indeed, hard to realize. Obedient to Mrs. Leslie's orders, her -husband and Danvers had fished--albeit with reluctance--forgotten -dress-suits from bottom deeps of leather portmanteaus. She herself -looked her prettiest in a gown of rich black lace superimposed on some -white material, and, carrying her imperative generosity to the limit, -she had forced one of her own dinner-dresses upon Helen. Of a filmy, -delicate blue, it brought out the young wife's golden beauty. From the -low corsage her slender throat and delicate face rose like a pink lily -from a violet calyx. Usually she wore her redundant hair coiled in a -thick braid around the crown of her head for comfort; but to-night it -was done upon her neck in a loose figure of eight that revealed its mass -and sheen. Looking from Mrs. Leslie to Helen, Kate Ravell had secretly -congratulated herself upon having, despite her husband's protest, -slipped one of her own pretty dresses into his valise. - -His laugh, a wholesome peal that accorded with his good-humored face, -followed her remark. "She didn't think that at Lone Tree," he said. "A -lumber-wagon was the best the liveryman could do for us in the way of -conveyance, and when Kate asked if he hadn't a carriage he looked -astonished and scratched his head. - -"'Ain't but one in town,' he answered, 'an' it belongs to Doc Ellis. -'Tain't been used sence he druv the small-pox case down to the Brandon -pest-house. I 'low he'd let you have it.'" - -His wife echoed his laugh. "It was a little rough, but this--it's -great!" She pointed out through the open door over the wheat, golden -under the setting sun, to the dark green and yellow of woods and -prairies. "You are to be envied, Nell. Your house is so artistic. The -life must be ideal--" - -Inwardly, Mrs. Leslie snorted: "Humph! If she could see her milking, up -to ankles in mud on rainy days--or feeding those filthy calves?" Aloud, -she said, "Unfortunately, Helen isn't here very often--spends most of -her time in Winnipeg." Ignoring Helen's pleading look, she ran on, "Did -you store your things, my dear, or let the house furnished?" - -Thus entrapped, Helen could only answer that her goods were stored, and -her embarrassment deepened when Mrs. Leslie continued: "It is such a -pity, Mrs. Ravell, that you could not have met Mr. Carter! He is such a -dear fellow, so quiet and refined. Fred"--Leslie's grin faded under her -frown--"what is the matter?" - -"A crumb, my dear," he apologized. "Excuse me, please." - -"We shall have to return you to the nursery." Her glance returned to -Kate Ravell, and, oblivious of the entreaty in Helen's eyes, she ran on -in praise of Carter. He was so reserved! The reserve of strength that -goes with good-nature! Resourceful--and so she flowed on with her -panegyrics. She was not altogether insincere. Helen caught herself -blushing with pleasure whenever, leaving her fictions, Mrs. Leslie -touched on some sterling quality. Twice she was startled to hear put -into words subtilties that she herself had only felt, and on each -occasion she narrowly watched Mrs. Leslie, an adumbration of suspicion -forming in her mind. But each time it was removed by absurd praise of -hypothetical qualities or virtues Carter did not possess. So Mrs. -Leslie praised and teased. - -What influenced her? It is hard to answer a question that inheres in -the complexities of such a frivolous yet passionate nature. Naturally -good-natured, she would help Helen out in all things that did not cross -her own purposes. The sequel proves that she had not yet got Carter out -of her hot blood. Given which two things, her action, teasings, and -panegyrics are at least understandable. - -"We are very sorry," Kate Ravell said when Mrs. Leslie gave pause. "We -did wish to see him. Do you suppose, Helen, that we might if we stayed -another day?" - -It was more than possible, but Ravell relieved Helen of a sudden deadly -fear. "Can't do it, my dear. We are tied down by schedule. Should -miss the Japan steamer and have to lay over in Vancouver two weeks." - -Kate sighed. Newly married, she had all of a young wife's desire to see -her girl friend happy as herself; nor would aught but ocular -demonstration satisfy the longing. She was expressing the hope that -Carter and Helen should some day visit them in their Eastern home, when -she suddenly paused, staring out-doors. Following her glance, Mrs. -Leslie saw a man, a big fellow in lumberman's shirt and overalls. The -garments were burned in several places, so that blackened skin showed -through. His eyes were bloodshot, his face sooty, which accounted for -Mrs. Leslie's not recognizing him at once. - -"Mr. Carter!" she exclaimed, after a second look. - -Helen was pouring tea, but she sprang up at the name, spilling a cup of -boiling tea over her wrist. She did not feel the scald. Breathless, -she stood, a hand pressed against her bosom, until Mrs. Leslie, the -always ready, burst into merry laughter. - -"What a blackamoor! How you frightened us! Where _have_ you been?" - -Coming up from the stables, Carter had heard voices, laughter, the -tinkle of teacups, and the sound had afflicted him with something of the -feeling that assails the wanderer whose returning ears give him sounds -of revelry in the old homestead. He had suffered, during his absence, -remorse for his own obstinacy mingling in equal proportions with the -pain of Helen's coldness. Absence had been rendered endurable by the -thought that it would make reconciliation the easier; but now that he -was returned, ready to give and ask forgiveness, to pour his good news -into her sympathetic ear, he found her merrymaking. - -His was a hard position. Between himself, rough, ragged, dirty, and -these well-groomed men in evening dress, there could be no more -startling contrast. He felt it. The table, with its snowy napery, -gleaming appointments, was foreign to his sight as the _decollete_ -dresses, the white arms and necks. Yet his natural imperturbability -stood him bravely in place of sophistication. - -"Been fighting fire," he answered, with his usual deliberation. -"Suppose I do look pretty fierce." - -His glance moved inquiringly from the Ravells to his wife. - -But she still stood, eyes wide, breath issuing in light gasps from her -parted lips. For her also the moment was full of bitterness. There was -no time for thought. She only felt--a composite feeling compounded of -the misgiving, discontent, humiliation, disappointment, disillusionment -of the last few months. It all culminated in that moment, and with it -mixed deep shame, remorse for her conduct. Also she had regret on -another score. If she _had_ told him, he would at least have been -prepared, have achieved a presentable appearance. Now she was taken in -her sin! Foul with smoke, soot, the dirt and grime of labor, he was -facing her guests. - -Starting, she realized that they were waiting, puzzled, for -introductions--that is, Kate was puzzled. Ravell was busily employed -taking admiring note of Carter's splendid inches. Poor Helen! She -might have been easier in her mind could she have sensed the friendly -feeling that inhered in Ravell's cordial grip. - -"We were just deploring the fact that we were not to meet you, Mr. -Carter," he said. "We felt sure of finding you home after the notice we -gave Mrs. Carter. We were really quite jealous of your affairs, but now -we shall go away satisfied." - -Given a duller man, the word "notice" supplied the possibilities of an -unpleasant situation. But though he instantly remembered the letter, -Carter gave no sign till he and Helen had passed into their bedroom. -Even then he abstained from direct allusions. - -"Friends of yourn?" he questioned, as she set out clean clothing. - -"Kate is an old school-fellow. Wait; I'll get you clean towels." She -bustled about, hiding her nervousness from his gray inquisition. "They -are on their honey-moon. Going to the Orient--Japan, China, and the -island countries. They stayed off a couple of days to see us." - -"To see you," he corrected. - -She colored. Her glance fluttered away from his grave eyes. She -hurried again into speech. "Wait, dear! I'll get you some warm water." - -He refused the service, he who had loved to take anything from her -hands. "Thanks. I think the lake fits my case. Give me the towels and -I'll change down there after my swim." - -The meal was finished, and she, with the others, had carried her chair -outside before he came swinging back from the lake. He was wearing the -store clothes of her misgivings, but the ugly cut could not hide the -magnificent sweep of his limbs. She thrilled despite her misery. As she -rose to get his dinner, Mrs. Leslie also jumped up. - -"Poor man, you must be famished!" she exclaimed. "No, Helen, you are -tired. Stay here and entertain the men. Mrs. Ravell and I will wait on -Mr. Carter. And you, Mr. Danvers, may act as cookee." - -Thus saved from an uncomfortable tete-a-tete, Helen suffered a greater -misery than his accusing presence. While chatting with Ned Ravell, her -ears were strained to catch the conversation going on inside. She -listened for Carter's homely locutions, shivering as she pictured his -primitive table manners. As a burst of laughter followed his murmured -bass, she wondered whether they were laughing _with_ or _at_ him. - -She might have been easy, for the laugh was on Danvers. As yet that -young gentleman was still in the throes of the sporting fever which -invariably assails Englishmen new to the frontier. Any day he might be -seen wriggling snakelike on the flat of his belly through mud towards -some wary duck, and an enthusiastic eulogium on the shooting qualities -of a new Greener gun had drawn from Carter the story of Danvers' first -kill. - -"Prairie chicken's mighty good eating an' easy shooting," he remarked, -with a sly look at Kate Ravell. "But nothing would satisfy his soaring -ambitions but duck. Duck for his, sirree! an' he blazed away till the -firmament hereabouts was powder-marked and riddled. Burned up at least -three tons of powder before he got my duck." - -"_Your duck?_" Danvers protested. "Just hear him, Mrs. Leslie. It was -a wild duck that I shot down here by the lake." - -Carter chuckled and went on with his teasing. "I came near being called -as a witness to that cruel murder, for I was back-setting the thirty -acres down by the lake when I heard a shot an' a yell. I read it that -he'd got himself, an' was jes' going after the remains, when up he comes -on a hungry lope, gun in one hand and a mallard in the other. The bird -was that mussed up its own mother couldn't have told it from a cocoanut -door-mat. Looked like it had made foolish faces at a Gatling; yet he -tells me that he gets the unfortunate animal at eighty yards on the -wing." - -"You know how close that old gun of mine used to shoot," Danvers -interrupted. "It was choke-bored, Mrs. Ravell. At eighty-yards it -would put every shot inside of a three-foot circle." - -"The feather marking looked sort of familiar to me," Carter went calmly -on. "An' he admits, on cross-examination, that he murders this bird in -front of my cabin." - -"What of it?" Danvers eagerly put in. "Wild ducks light any old place." - -"But it jes' happens that the confiding critter has raised her brood in -the sedges there, being encouraged an' incited thereto by my wife, who -throws it bread an' other pickings. Taking Danvers' gun-barrel for some -new kind of worm, when he pokes it through the sedge she sails right up -and is examining the boring thereof, when, bang! she's blown into a -railroad disaster." - -"Don't believe him, Mrs. Ravell," Danvers pleaded. "It was a wild duck, -and I shot it flying." - -"So if the new gun's what you say it is," the tormentor finished, "you'd -better to practise on prairie chicken an' don't be misled by Mrs. -Leslie's hens." - -"As though I couldn't tell a hen from a prairie chicken!" - -Carter joined in the laugh which Danvers' indignant remonstrance drew -from the women, yet under the laugh, beneath his humorous indifference, -lay a sad heart. "She knew they were coming! She didn't tell me!" -Down by the lake he had reasoned the situation out to its cruel -conclusion--"She's ashamed of me!" How it hurt! Yet the flick on the -raw served him well in that it set him on his mettle, nerved him to -carry off the situation. - -He did not try to transcend his limitations, to clog himself with -unfamiliar restrictions of speech or manners. But within those -limitations he did his best, and did it so well that neither woman was -conscious of social difference. He showed none of the bashfulness which -might be expected from a frontiersman sitting for the first time at -table with fashionable women in dinner-gowns. On the contrary, he -admired the pretty dresses, the white arms, the hands that handled the -teacups so gracefully; and when he spoke the matter so eclipsed the -manner that it is doubtful whether Kate Ravell noticed a single -locution. His shrewd common-sense, quaint humor, the quickness with -which he grasped a new point of view, and the freshness of his own -impressed her with his strong personality. Pleased and amused, she had -no time to notice grammatical lapses or small table gaucheries that had -irritated Helen by constant repetition. - -"He's delightful," she told her husband, in a conjugal aside. - -In the conversation which ensued after they joined the others outside, -Carter also took no mean part. Of things he knew, and these ranged over -subjects that were the more interesting because unfamiliar to the -town-bred folks, he spoke entertainingly; and on those foreign to his -experience he preserved silence. On every common topic his opinion was -sound, wholesome. His keen wit punctured several fallacies. The quaint -respect of his manner to the women served him as well with the men. - -"Big brain," Ravell told his wife in that conference which all married -folk have held since the first pair retired to their bedroom under the -stars at the forks of the Euphrates. "That fellow will go far." - -"So gentle and kind," Kate added. "I think Helen is lucky. Those -English people are nice," she went on, musingly; "but if I were Helen -I'd keep an eye on Mrs. Leslie." - -"Yes," she answered his surprised look, nodding vigorously. "She is in -love with Mr. Carter. How do I know?" She sniffed. "Didn't I see her -eyes--the opportunities she made to touch him while handing him things -at supper? Helen is safe, though, so long as she treats him properly. -He doesn't care for Mrs. Leslie." - -He shook his head reprovingly. "You shouldn't make snap judgments, -Kate." - -Had he witnessed a little scene that occurred just before the Leslies -drove away! Good-byes had been said, and Helen had gone in-doors with -her guests. Danvers, who was riding, had galloped away. Then, at the -last moment, Leslie remembered that he had left his halters at the -stable. While he ran back Carter stood beside the rig. Brilliant -northern moonlight showed him Mrs. Leslie's eyes, dark, dilated, but he -ignored their knowledge till she spoke. - -"_I_ wouldn't have done it." - -"Done what?" - -His stoicism could not hide the sudden flash of pain. She saw it writhe -over his face like the quivering of molten lead ere his features set in -stern immobility. - -"It is very chivalrous of you." She smiled bitterly. "But why wear a -mask with me?" - -"You have the advantage of me, ma'am," he stiffly answered, and moved -round to the ponies' heads. - -Leslie was now returning, but she spoke again, quickly, eagerly, with -the concentration of passion. "It is always the way! The more we spurn -you the hotter your love, and--" She paused, then, hearing her -husband's foot-fall, whispered: "Vice versa. Remember! _I_ wouldn't -have done it!" - -After their departing rattle had died, Carter threw himself on the grass -before the house and lay, head on clasped hands, staring up at the moon; -and Helen, who was using unnecessary time making a temporary bed, paused -and looked out from the open door. The dark figure loomed stern and -still as the marble effigy of some crusader. There was something awful -in his silence; the soft moonlight quivered around and about him, seemed -a sorrowful emanation. Frightened, remorseful, she sat locking and -unlocking her fingers. What was he thinking? - -Part of his thought was easy to divine. It would be common to any man -in his situation--the hurt pride, jealous pain, misgiving, unhappiness, -but beyond these was an unknown quantity, the product of his own -peculiar individuality. His keen intellect had already analyzed the -cause of her shame. He was rough, crude, unpolished! Any man might -also have reached that conclusion. It was in the synthesis, the -upbuilding of thought from that conclusion, that he branched from the -common. He was humble enough in acknowledging his defects. Yet his -natural wit showed him that humility would not serve in these premises. -Forgiveness for the crime against his personality would not remove the -cause of the offence. Far-sighted, he saw down the vista of years his -and her love slowly dying of the same similar offences and causes. -That, at least, should never be! He had reached a decision before she -came creeping out in her night-dress. - -"Aren't you coming to bed, dear?" - -He sensed the remorse, sorrow, pity in her voice, but these were not the -feelings to move his resolution. Pity! It is the anodyne, the peaceful -end of love. Rising, he stretched his great arms and turned towards the -stables. - -"Where are you going?" she called, sharply, under the urge of sudden -fear. - -"To turn in on the hay." - -She ran and caught his arm, and turned her pale face up to his. "Why? -I have made our bed on the couch. Won't you come in?" - -"No!" - -"Why?" she reiterated. "Oh, why?" - -"Because it is shame to live together when love has fled." - -She clasped his arm with both hands. "Oh, don't say that! How _can_ -you say it? Who says I do not love you?" - -"Yourself." His weary, hopeless tone brought her tears. "In love there -is no shame, an' you was ashamed of me." - -"I did mean to tell you." Desperate, she caught his neck. How valuable -this love was becoming, now she felt it slipping from her! "I did! But -you went away without saying good-bye." - -"There was opportunity, plenty. You could have sent for me." - -His sternness set her trembling. "Then--I thought--I thought--they were -only to be here for one day. Such a short visit. I thought they might -misjudge--I didn't want to expose you to hostile criticism." - -"You've said it. Love knows no fear. Good-night." - -"Oh!--please--_don't_!" she called after him, as he strode away. Pity, -woman's weakness, the conservative instinct that makes against broken -ties, these were all behind her cry, and his keen sensibility instantly -detected them. He closed the stable door. - -According to the canons of romance, it would have been very proper for -that jarring echo to have unstoppered the fountains of her love and all -things would have come to a proper ending. But, somehow, it did not. -After a burst of crying into her lonely pillow, she lay and permitted -her mind to hark back over her married life. Hardship, squalor, -suffering, misfortune passed in review till she gained back to the days -when Molyneux had also paid her court. What share had anger and pique -in affecting her decision? Angry pride was, just then, ready to yield -them the larger proportion. Later came softer memories. She was -troubled as she thought of his generous kindness. Under the thought -affection, if not love, revived, and conscience permitted no sleep until -she promised to beg forgiveness. - -However, circumstance robbed her of the opportunity. Before the Ravells -retired, Carter had said good-bye, as he intended to start back for the -woods before sunrise. "You needn't to get up, either," he had told her. -"I'll take breakfast with Bender." But now she promised herself that -she would rise, get him a hot meal, and then make her peace. But at -dawn she was awakened by his wheels, and, running to the door, she was -just in time to see him go by. She would have called only, as the cry -trembled to her lips, his words of the night before recurred to -memory--"Marriage without love is shame!" Suddenly conscious of her -night-gear, she shrank as a young girl would from the eye of a stranger, -and the chance was gone. - -"I'll tell him when he returns," she murmured, blushing. - - -But he did not return; and two days later Bender and Jenny Hines drove -up to the door. - -In the neatly dressed girl, with hair done on top of her head, it was -difficult, indeed, to recognize the forlorn creature whom Bender had -picked up on that night trail. Though she was still small--a legacy -from her drudging years--she had filled and rounded out into a becoming -plumpness. Her pale eyes had deepened, were full of sparkle and color. -Two years ago she would have been deemed incapable of the smile she -turned on Helen. - -"I'm so glad to see you, Mrs. Carter; an' I'm to stay with you all -winter while your husband's up at the camp. The doctor didn't want to -let me go," she said, not noting Helen's surprise, "an' he wouldn't to -any one but you." - -"The camp? What camp?" - -It was Jenny's turn to stare. As for Bender, he gaped, while his colors -rivalled those of a cooked beet. Sweating under her questions, he -looked off and away to escape the spectacle of her white misery as he -explained Carter's new enterprise and its glorious possibilities. He -finished with an attempt at comfort. - -"I ain't surprised that he didn't tell you. I allow he was going to -spring it on you all hatched and full-fledged. Me an' Jenny here was -real stupid to give it away. Might just as well have said as she'd come -on a little visit. I allow he'll be hopping mad at the pair of us. An' -now I'll have to be going after the Cougar. He'll do the chores till we -kin get you a hired man." - -If the fiction eased the situation, it deceived neither her nor them. -Having, a week later, delivered the new hired man, a strong young Swede, -Bender delivered his real opinion with dubious head-shakings while -carting the Cougar away. "Don't it beat hell, Cougar? Him that -straight an' good, her that sweet an' purty, yet they don't hitch. It's -discouraging." - -"Well," the cynic grunted, "take warning." - -Bender eyed him wrathfully. "Now what in hell do you mean?" - -But he blushed under the Cougar's meaning glance. - -"I reckon he'll drop in on his way up," Bender had assured Helen. But -he did not. She yet allowed herself to hope--hoped on while the weeks -drew into months, each of which brought a check for household expenses. -Soon the snows blanketed the prairies; heavy frost vied with the cold at -her heart; and he had not come. Jenny's reticence kept the truth from -leaking out; but such things may not be hid, and about Christmas-time it -was whispered through the settlements that Carter had left his wife. - - - - - *XIII* - - *THE CAMP* - - -That was a hard winter. From five feet of snow the settlements thrust -up, grim, ugly blotches on the whiteness. And it was very cold. Once -the spirit dropped down, down, down to seventy-two below zero--one -hundred and four degrees of frost. Fifty was normal, forty, rather -warm. Also it stormed, and when the blizzard cut loose, earth, air, or -sky was not merged in blanched chaos. - -Nestling snugly in the heart of the spruce, Carter's camp, however, was -free of the blizzard. Let the forest heave to upper air-currents, -tossing skeleton branches with eerie creakings, yet the gangs worked in -comfort, cutting and hauling logs, while outside a hundred-mile wind -might be herding the drifts. - -By New Year's his work was well in hand. Eight million feet of logs lay -on the ice, filling Silver Creek bankful like a black flood for a long -half-mile. Not that this had been accomplished without friction. Such -jettison of humanity as drifts to a lumber-camp does not shake down to -work in a day. From earth's four corners a gallows crew of Swedes, -French, Russians, Irish, Canadians, Yankees drifted in, and for one -month thereafter internecine war raged in the bunk-houses. Then, having -bit, gouged, and kicked itself into some sort of a social status, the -camp concentrated upon the boss. - -The choppers, strangers to him, soon took his measure. A swift answer to -a mutinous glance, an order quietly drawled, and the relation was duly -fixed. But it was different with the teamsters. They, with their -teams, were all drawn from the settlements and knew him personally or by -report. Even Hines had condescended to accept three dollars a day and -board at the hand of his enemy. But than this no man can greater offend -against his neighbors--to rise superior in the common struggle for -existence. From them he obtained no credit for the initiative which had -conjured the camp out of nothing. Now that it was in full swing, each -man felt that he could have done the trick himself. A man may have no -honor in his own country; so, as always was, always will be, they, the -weak, snarled at him, the strong carrying their envious spite to the -length of trying to kill the goose which was laying the golden egg. -Though the money earned this winter would make an easy summer, they -struck at the source of supply--wasted his fodder, tipped over his -sleds, cast logs off to lighten their loads, manifested their jealousy -in a hundred mean ways. - -The matter of the fodder he easily corrected. Discovering the teams one -evening bedded to their bellies with his choicest hay, he sent for -Bender, who expressed himself profanely over the waste. - -"If this keeps up we'll be out of hay an' a job in another month," -Carter said. "What's got into them?" - -"Search me," the giant foreman answered. "They know a heap better. -Pure malice, I reckon." - -"Got a good man in your gang?" - -"Big Hans, the loader. He's licked every man in his outfit." - -"Well, put him in charge of the stables, with fifty cents a day raise." - -"Don't need the raise," Bender suggested. "He'd sooner fight than eat." - -"Oh, give it to him." - -Events justified the expenditure. At the end of a week it were, indeed, -difficult to locate a feature of Big Hans's face--to distinguish nose -from cheek or discover his mouth. But beyond this uncertainty of visage -there was nothing undecided about Hans. He had worked steadily through -the teamsters and come out on top. The waste stopped. - -The derelict logs and loads were not so easily settled. Once, sometimes -twice, a month business called Carter to Winnipeg, and, though Bender -ruled the camp with an iron fist, one pair of eyes cannot keep tab on -fifty teamsters. Driving in one evening, Carter counted fifteen -cast-off loads between the dumps and the skidways. The last lay within -three hundred yards of the skids, where a halloo would have brought the -Cougar--loading boss--and a dozen men to the teamster's aid. - -That was the last straw. Through gray obscurity of snowy dusk Carter -stared at the dark mass as though it incarnated the mulish obstinacy -which dogged his enterprise. Perhaps it did, to him, for he muttered: -"I'm real sorry for you. Must have troubled you some to make back to -the stables. Guess you wasn't late for supper." - -Vexed, indignant, he drove slowly by the skidways, where the sleds -stood loaded for the morning trip. Enormous affairs, built on his own -plans, fourteen feet across the bunks, they were loaded squarely with -four tiers of logs, then ran up to a single log. In the gloom they -loomed like hay-stacks, and a stranger to the woods would have sworn -that no single team could start one. But they ran on rounded runners -over iced tracks, and Carter knew that they were not overloaded. - -"No kick there," he muttered. - -Farther on a rise in the trail gave him a view of the camp across a wide -slough: a jumble of log buildings that shouldered one another over the -inequalities of a narrow, open strip between slough and forest. Under -the rising moon the sod roofs, flat and snow-clad, gleamed faintly. -Patches of yellow, frosted windows blotched the mass of the walls. -Beyond, dark spruce towered against the sky-line. It spread, that -gloomy mantle of spruce, illimitable as night itself, northward to the -frozen circle, its vast expanse unbroken by other centre of warmth and -light. Solitary splash of life, the camp emphasized the profundities of -environing space, accentuated their loneliness. - -Reining in, Carter gazed thoughtfully at this, the work of his hands. -The clear air gave him many voices. He could hear Big Hans swearing -quaintly in the stables. A teamster sang on his way to the cook-house. -An oblong of brighter yellow flashed out of a mass. That was the -cook-house door opening to admit the singer. Came a murmur and clatter -of dishes; then light and sound vanished. Suddenly, far off, a long -howl troubled the silence. Wild, mournful, tremulous, it was emblematic -of his problem. Here, a hundred miles beyond the stretch of the law's -longest finger, the law of the wolf pack still obtained--only the strong -hand could rule. - -The howl also signalled his arrival at a conclusion. "They're at -supper," he muttered. "I'll tackle them there an' now." - -First he went to the office, a rough log-hut which he shared with -Bender. The giant lay, smoking, in his bunk, but he sprang up at -Carter's news. "An' I busted the head of the Russian on'y yesterday for -pitching off a load! Who's at the bottom of it? Now you've got me. -Michigan Red's as mean as any. Jes' this morning he busted two -whiffle-trees running, an' I happened along jes' in time to save the -third. Of course, his runners was froze down hard, an' him snapping his -heavy team like all get out. - -"'From your looks,' I says to him, 'I'd have allowed you'd sense enough -to loosen your bobs!' He on'y grinned. 'Clean forgotten, boss. Kick -that hinter bunker, will you?' That man," Bender finished, "has gall -enough to fix out a right smart tannery." - -Carter frowned. The man, a red-haired, red-bearded fellow, with a -greenishly pale face and cold, bleak eyes, had come in from the wheat -settlements about the Prairie Portage, driving a huge team of blacks. -The one, a stallion, rose sixteen and a half hands to the crest of his -swelling shoulder. Reputed a man-killer, he wore an iron muzzle in -stable or out. His mate, a rat-tailed mare, equally big, differed only -in the insignia of wickedness, wearing a kicking-strap in harness, a -log-chain in the stable. Man and team were well mated. - -"If he'd make his pick on me!" Bender growled on, "'twould have been -pie-easy. I'd have smashed him one, an' you could have handed out his -walking-papers. But no! It's you he's laying for. 'Your boss ain't big -enough to do it,' he says, when I tell him that there'll be other things -than busted whiffle-trees if he don't look out. 'You're a privileged -character till I'm through with him.' An' that's just the way of it. -He'll swallow all I kin give him while waiting for you." - -Carter's nod confirmed Bender's reasoning. No one else could play his -hand in this game of men. The giant had deferred to that unwritten law -of the woods which reads that every man must win his own battles. "Know -anything of him?" he asked. - -"Cougar ran acrost him once in Michigan. Don't lay no stress on his -character, but says he's mighty good with his hands." - -"Well, come along to the cook-house." - -As they opened the cook-house door a hundred men looked up from the -three tables which ran the length of the long log-hut. These bristled -with tinware, and between them and the stove three cookees ran back and -forth with smoking platters of potatoes, beans, and bacon. At the upper -end a reflector lamp shed a bright light over the cook and his pots; but -tables were dimly lighted by candles stuck upright at intervals in their -own grease. Their feeble flicker threw red shirts and dark, hairy faces -into Rembrandt shadow. Hot, oily, flushed from fast and heavy eating, -intensely animal, they peered through the reek of steaming food at -Carter. - -'"I won't keep you a minute," he answered the resentment which his -interruption had called to all the faces. "I jes' want to say that too -many logs have been dumped by the trail of late. Now if any teamster -thinks that the loaders are stacking it on him, he can report to the -foreman, who'll see him righted. But if, after this--" - -"More beans!" A laugh followed the harsh interruption. The faces turned -to Michigan Red. When the others paused he had continued eating, and -now, his greenish face aglow with insolence, he was holding an empty -platter out to the nearest cookee. - -It was a difficult situation. There was no mistaking his intent, yet -the interruption was timed so cunningly as to leave no actual cause of -offence. Behind Carter, Bender bristled with rage, ready to sweep -casuistical distinctions aside with his fist. Malignantly curious, the -faces turned back to Carter. - -He waited quietly till the red teamster was served; paused even then, -for, as the latter fell to his eating, shovelling beans into his mouth -with knife loaded the length of the blade, Carter experienced an -uncomfortable twinge of memory. The squared elbows, nimble knife, bent -head grossly caricatured himself in the first days of his marriage, and -vividly recalled Helen's gentle tutelage. For a second he saw himself -with her eyes, then pride thrust away the vision. - -"After this"--he began where he had left off--"any teamster who dumps a -load without permission or good cause will be docked time and charged -for his board." - -"More pork!" It was the red teamster again. Resting an elbow on the -table while he held out the plate behind him, he permitted his bleak -glance to wander along the grins till it brought up on Carter. - -Choking with anger, Bender stepped, but Carter laid a hand on his arm -while he spoke to the cook. "This man has a tape-worm. Send him the -pot." - -Blunt and to the point, the answer exactly suited lumberman primitive -humor. As the door closed behind them Bender's chuckles echoed the -men's roaring laugh. "Fixed him that time," he commented. "But he come -back right smart." - -"Can't come too soon. It all helps to fill in." - -Bender sensed the sadness in his tone, and the big heart of him was -troubled. These months past he had seen Carter pile task on task, -seeking an anodyne for unhappiness in ceaseless toil. Every night the -office lights burned unholy hours. Waking this particular night, long -after twelve, Bender saw that Carter was still at his desk. - -"Time you hired a book-keeper," he remonstrated. "Trail you are -travelling ends in the 'sylum." - -"Book-keeper couldn't do this work." - -"No?" Bender sat up. "What's the brand?" - -"Figuring--grading contrac's, bridges, trestles, timbering." - -"For what?" - -"A railroad." - -Bender snorted. "Shore! You ain't surely calculating on the C.P.'s -building the branch?" - -"No." - -The monosyllable discouraged further questioning, but Bender stuck to -his main objection. "Well, if you keep this gait you'll railroad -yourself into the graveyard. It is two now; at five you'll be out with -the loaders." - -"Correct." - -The giant straightened up in his bunk. "Good God, man! Don't you never -sleep?" - -"I'll sleep to-morrow night. Now, shut up!" - -Growling, Bender subsided, and long after he had slid again into the -land of dreams, Carter stared at the opposite wall with eyes that gave -him neither the bales, boxes, ranged along its length, nor the shirts, -socks, overalls, and other lumbermen's supplies on the rough shelving. -He saw only Helen's flower face blossoming out of the blackness of the -far corner. - -The replica of himself that he had seen that night in Michigan Red was -but the climax of similar, if milder, experiences. Naturally enough, -his Winnipeg trips had brought him in contact with people of more or -less refinement. He met them at hotels, or in the parlors of his -business acquaintances when, as sometimes happened, they invited him to -dinner. Such circumstances had simply forced him to set a guard on his -speech and manners--to imitate those about him. There had been nothing -slavish in his imitation--no subtraction from the force of his -personality. It was rather the grafting of the strong, wild plant with -the fruit of hot-house culture. It inhered in a dawning realization that -manners, courtesy, social customs were based on consideration for -others' happiness, besides being pleasant of themselves. - -Not that he was ready to admit the fact as sufficient excuse for Helen's -treatment of himself. Hurt pride forbade. "She didn't give me a -chance," he murmured. "I'd have come to it--in time. She was ashamed." - -Yet each concession to social custom became an argument for her, and was -turned against him in the nightly conflict between pride, passion, love, -and reason. Often love would nearly win. While her face smiled from -the corner, love would whisper: "She is yours. Six hours' ride will -take you to her." - -But pride always answered, "Wait till she sends for you." And he would -turn again to his figuring. - -For pride had enlisted ambition in its aid. Long ago his clear sight -had shown him the need of a competing railroad, and gradually a scheme -had grown upon him. What man had done, man could do. If a great trunk -road could develop from the imagination of one man, a transverse line -that should strike south and find an outlet on the American border could -hatch from the brain of another. He would build it himself. Already he -had broached the matter to his financial backers, and they had given it -favorable consideration--more, were interesting other capitalists in the -project. So, in camp, on trail, his every spare moment was given to the -working out of construction estimates. - -Only once was his resolution shaken. From Lone Tree the camp "tote" -trail slid due northeast, passing the settlements a half-dozen miles to -the east. Save on this one occasion, when the need of men and teams -caused him to take the other, he always used the "tote" trail. And even -this time he did not dally in the settlements. Having advertised his -need at the Assiniboin mission, Flynn's, and the post-office, he headed -up for the camp as dusk blanketed the prairies. Dark brought him to his -own forks, where, reining in, he gazed long at a yellow blotch on the -night, his own kitchen light. A five-minute trot would put him with -her! Love urged go! Pride said nay! And while they battled his ponies -shivered in the bitter wind. He waited, waited, waited. Which would -have won out will never be known, for presently a cutter dashed out of -the gloom, swung round on his trail, and, as he turned out to let it by, -he caught voices, Helen's and Mrs. Leslie's, in lively chatter. - -Leaning over, he lashed his ponies, raced them into the camp. - -After that he turned with renewed assiduity to his figures. Still, they -are dry things, matters of intellect, useless for the alleviation of -feeling. One emotion requires another for its cure, and the trouble -with Michigan Red promised more forgetfulness than could be obtained -from the most intricate calculations. That is why he had said, "He -can't come back too soon." - -He quickened at the thought of the coming struggle. In himself the red -teamster embodied the envy, spite, disaffection which, from the first, -had clogged Carter's enterprise. He materialized the vexatious forces, -impalpable things that Carter had been fighting, and he felt the relief -which comes to the man who at last drives a mysterious enemy out to the -open. - - - - - *XIV* - - *THE RED TEAMSTER* - - -As Bender prophesied, Michigan Red came back "right smartly." - -The following Sunday was one of those rare winter days when the mercury -crawls out of its ball sufficiently to register a point or two. At noon -the silver column indicated only four below zero, and, accustomed to -sterner temperatures, the men lolled about the camp bare-headed and -shirt-sleeved. One hardy group was running a poker game on a blanket -under the sunny lea of a bunkhouse; the younger men, choppers and -teamsters, skylarked about the camp essaying feats of strength: some -tossed the caber, others put the shot, a third squad startled the forest -with the platoon fire of a whip-cracking contest. Standing in his -doorway, the cook, autocrat of the camp, remarked patronizingly on the -latter performance. - -"Pretty fair," he judicially observed, as one young fellow raised the -echoes--"pretty fair, Carrots, but Sliver there has you beat. Needn't -to look so cocky, though, Sliver," he qualified his praise, "or I'll -call up Michigan to teach you how to crack a whip." - -"Oh, shucks! I ain't scared o' him," Sliver grinned. Then, rising to -his slim height, he writhed body and arm and let forth a veritable _feu -de joie_. - -"You would, would you?" the cook warned. "Here, Red!" he called to the -gamblers. "Get up an' give this kid a lesson." - -"You go plumb to--" The location was drowned by Sliver's second volley. - -"Oh, come, Red!" the cook urged. "This kid makes me tired." - -The red teamster went on playing, and would, no doubt, have indefinitely -continued the game but that, looking up to curse the importunate cook, -he saw the stable roustabout interestedly watching the whip-crackers. A -man in years, the latter was a child in intellect, simple to the point -of half-wittedness. Picking him up, starving, in Winnipeg, Carter had -brought him up to the camp early in the winter, and ever since he had -served as a butt for the camp's jokes. - -Michigan rose. "Lend me your whip, Carrots!" - -"Now you'll see!" the cook confidently affirmed, as the long lash -writhed about Michigan's head. Exploding, it sent a trail of echoes -coursing through the forest. As is the pop of a pistol to the roar of a -cannon, so was his volley compared to that of Sliver. Then, to prove -himself in accuracy, Michigan snapped a fly from the cook's bare arm. - -"A trifle close," he exclaimed, rubbing the spot. "Do it ag'in, Red, -an' I cut out your Sunday pudding." - -Grinning, Michigan swung again, turned, as the lash writhed in mid-air, -and cracked it explosively within an inch of the roustabout's ear. -"Stan' still, you son of a gun!" he swore, as the poor simpleton -flinched. "Keep him in, boys. Stan' still, or I'll take it clean off -nex' crack.... Now we'll play you've a fly on the tip of your nose." - -The play was too realistic, drawing a spot of blood. Yelling with pain, -the roustabout swore, begged, pleaded piteously to be let alone. But a -circle of grinning teamsters hedged him in on all sides save where the -red teamster stood with his whip. Man, in the aggregate, is always -cruel. Let a few hundred blameless citizens, fathers of families, -husbands, brothers, be gathered together and flicked with passion's -whip, and you have a mob equal to the barbarities of Caligula. And -these men were raw, wild as the woods. Shoving the simpleton back -whenever he tried to break, they stood grinning while Michigan cut -cracking circles about his head. Sometimes his hair moved under the wind -of the lash; sometimes it grazed his nose. There was no telling where -it would explode. He could not dodge it. Trying, the whip drew blood -from his neck. - -"Stan' still, then!" the red teamster answered his yell of pain. "I -ain't responsible for your cavortings." - -"Spoiling Red's aim!" the cook admonished, severely. "I never seed your -like!" - -"Now open your mouth wide," the tormentor went on. "I'm agoin' to put -the tip in your mouth without techin' your lips--if you don't move. -Open wide!" - -But the man's small wits were now completely gone. He opened his mouth -obediently, then, uttering a scream, a raucous, animal cry, he sprang at -his tormentor. But a dozen hands seized and dragged him back. - -"Hold him, boys! I'll skin the tip of his nose for that." - -As Michigan swung his whip the roustabout sent forth scream on scream. -Foam gathered on his lips. Terror had driven him insane. - -"No, no!" the cook remonstrated. "That's enough, Red--that's enough!" - -Unheeding, the teamster took aim, swung, then--another lash tangled in -his. Yelling with the sudden pain of a twisted wrist, he swung round on -Carter. Unobserved, he had run across from his office, snatched up -Sliver's whip, tangled Michigan's lash, and jerked it over his shoulder. - -"Boys"--he now faced the flushed crowd--"I don't allow to mix up with -your fun, but what do you call this?" - -One glance at the bloody weal on the roustabout's neck and the brutal -mob resolved into its individual components, each a unit of sorrow for -its share in the torture. - -"Jest a poor fool at that." Carter laid his hand on the simpleton's -shoulder. - -"Shore, shore! Yes!" the cook agreed. "It's too bad. We didn't go to -do that. No. We jest calculated to have a little fun, an' carried it a -leetle too far." - -"That's so! That's so!" Carrots, Smith, and Sliver all seconded the -cook, all voicing repentant public opinion. - -"No, Red didn't go to do that," the cook continued. "He moved. Red -didn't mean it; did you, Red?" - -After that one yell of pain the red teamster's eyes had glued to a -handspike which lay near by. But the useless wrist checked the impulse, -and he stood, sullenly noting changed opinion. - -"Is this a Sunday-school?" he answered, sneering. "Or mebbe a Young -Folks' Christian Endeavor? Sliver, what's the golden text?" - -"Oh, shore, Red!" Sliver remonstrated. - -"It's this." Carter looked round the group. "Any man who lays a hand -on this poor lad again gets his time." His glance fixed on Michigan -Red. - -The red teamster shrugged. His chance had gone by, and he was acute -enough to recognize the fact. Not that he lacked courage or strength to -try it out, man for man--bite, gouge, kick, in the brutal fashion of the -lumber woods. Taken by surprise, he had lost his vantage, and now saw -that his adversary had cleverly ranged against him an adverse opinion. - -"It's not him I'm laying for," he growled. "Some other day!" - - -The "other day" came a week later. Entering the stables at noon in -search of Brady, the water-hauler, Carter saw the red teamster perched -on the top rail of the black stallion's stall, in his hand the iron -muzzle which he had unstrapped that the brute might feed with ease. As -the beast snapped, rather than ate, his oats, he cast vicious, uneasy -glances from the tail of his eye at Red; but, indifferent to the brute's -mood and the anxious glances of his fellows, the teamster calmly chewed -his tobacco. - -It was by just such tricks that he had gained ascendency over his -fellows. Whereas it was worth another man's life to step into their -stall, the blacks would stand and sweat in rage and fear while Michigan -slapped and poked their ribs. The devil in the beasts seemed to -recognize a superior in the pale-green fiend in the man. - -"Brady here?" Carter asked. "Oh, there you are!" - -He stood immediately behind the stallion, and as he spoke Michigan -brought the iron muzzle down with a thwack an the brute's ribs. -Snorting, it lashed out, just missing Carter. One huge, steel-shod -heel, indeed, passed on either side of his head. Under such -circumstances a start was a little more than justifiable; yet after that -tribute to surprise Carter stepped quietly beyond range and went on -talking to Brady. - -"This afternoon you can hitch to the water-cart an' ice the track in to -them new skidways." - -Then, turning, he eyed Michigan Red. "That's a techy beast of yourn, -friend." - -"Techy?" Michigan sneered. "There ain't another man in this camp as kin -put the leathers on him!" - -"No?" - -"No!" Swinging his heels against the stall, Michigan added, "Not a -damned man." - -Picking up a spear of hay, Carter chewed it while he looked over the -beast, now foaming with rage. It was a dare. He knew it--saw also the -amused interest in the on-lookers. They felt Michigan had him in the -door. "The leathers," he remarked, "are on him." - -It was a skilful move, throwing the initiative back to the teamster. -Not one whit fazed, however, he exclaimed, in mock surprise, "Why, -damme, so they are!" Sliding down, he laid a hand on the stallion's -crest. Instantly the brute ceased his plunging, uneasy stepping, and -while the man stripped off the harness only long, slow shivers told of -smothered fury. - -"There you are!" He threw collar and harness at Carter's feet. - -"Look here, boss!" Brady remonstrated, as Carter picked them up. "I -wouldn't go to do it. Shure I wouldn't. The baste is a man-killer be -Red's own word. Luk at him for the proof." - -Ears laid flat to his neck, glossy hide shivering, the whites of his -eyes showing viciously, chisel teeth protruding through grinning lips, -the stallion's appearance bore out his reputation. - -"I wouldn't!" a dozen teamsters chorused. - -Unheeding, Carter entered the stall. As he ranged alongside, the -stallion tried to rear, but was snapped back by his halter-chain. So -foiled, he humped his shoulders, dropping his head between his knees; -then, just when the teamsters expected to see the sixteen hundred pounds -of him grind Carter against the stall, he suddenly straightened and -stood still as before, save for the slow shivers. - -"Mother of God!" Brady exclaimed. "What 'll that mane?" - -Carter's hand rested on the beast's crest. What did it mean? Only the -red teamster knew. But whether the animal shook to the memory of some -torture, or merely mistook the firm hand for that of his master, he -moved but once while Carter adjusted and buckled the harness. That was -at the cinching of the bellyband; but he quickly quieted. The click of -the breeching-snaps sounded like breaking sticks through the stable, and -as he stepped out from the stall a score of breaths issued in one huge -sigh. - -"Now hurry, Brady," he said. "The job will keep you humping till -sundown." - -Respectful glances followed him away from the stable. He had touched his -men in a vulnerable spot, and though, hereafter, they might growl and -grumble--the lumberman's sole relaxation--he could count on a fair -amount of obedience from all but such malingerers as Shinn and Hines, or -a natural anarchist like Michigan Red. The latter took on the yoke of -authority only to defy it; and though even his bleak face lit up as -sunlight struggles through frost of a winter's morning, he soon found -cause for further trouble. - -Dropping into the smith's shop a few days later, Carter found Seebach, -the German smith, ruefully contemplating a half-dozen disabled sleds. -"Herr Gott!" he exclaimed. "In one half-day these haf come in. Alretty -yet I works like t'ree tefils, an' this iss the leedle games they play -on me. It is that you gifs me a helper or I quit--eh?" - -Too surprised to laugh over the other's ludicrous anger, Carter puzzled -over the breakage. As aforesaid, the sleds had been built on his own -plans to carry enormous loads. To four-by-six runners, shod with an -inch of steel, hardwood bunkers a foot square were fastened with solid -iron knees braced with inch iron. Every bolt and pin was on the same -massive plan. The best of a dozen patterns of as many logging-camps had -gone into the making of those sleds. Yet, though they ought to have -been good for twenty tons oh the roughest kind of a road, they were -racked, split, or twisted, bunkers torn off, ironwork on all badly -sprung. - -Carter whistled. "How did they do it?" - -"Brady, he says it vas the new roat into the pridge timbers. In one -place it goes like hell over a pank down to a lake, with a quick turn at -the pottom. 'The Pig Glide,' Brady calls it." - -"I'll go out an' look at it." - -A half-hour's walk brought him to the hill. Debouching from heavy -timber, the trail inclined for two hundred yards, then sheered down at -an angle of forty-five degrees to a lake below. As the smith had said, -an abrupt turn at the bottom added to the trail's difficulties. Too -steep for ice-sledding, hay had been spread over the face of the hill, -and with this to ease the descent Carter could see no reason for the -broken sleds. - -A man had been told off to respread the hay after each passage, and he -grinned at Carter's question. "Bust 'em here? You bet! How? Well, -they come down on a gallop. Teams is coming now, so if you set down in -the scrub there you'll see 'em do it." - -It was as he said. One after the other the teams emerged from the -forest, gathered speed on the incline, and came flying down the hill, -the great sleds cracking and groaning under the strain of enormous loads -as they skidded around the bottom turn. Michigan Red came last, and -Carter's anger could not altogether drown a thrill as he watched the red -teamster take the hill. Whooping, whip-cracking, blacks stretched on the -gallop, he tore down that plumb hill-side and skidded round the turn, -load balanced on one runner. It split, with a pistol report, but the -steel shoe held and he passed safely on and down the lake. - -"He was the first to cut loose," the trackman explained. "T'others -followed his dare." - -"Well, they'll have to quit it. Warn each man, Joe, an' report all to -me that disobey." - -When, that evening, Joe reported that all but Michigan Red had obeyed -the order, he sensed hot anger under the boss's calm. Expecting an -explosion, he was the more surprised when, after a thoughtful pause, -Carter dismissed him with an order to take a couple of hand-rakes out on -the job the following morning. To the Cougar he gave orders that the -red teamster was to load last. Obedient, the Cougar sent Michigan Red -to break track into a new skidway; thus all of his fellows had passed on -down the glide while Michigan was still loading. - -"Load him light--dry logs, an' not too many," Carter had ordered. But, -incensed at the delay, the teamster indulged in such sarcastic allusions -to the frailty of the loaders' female ancestors that the ribald crew -piled the logs on till his load bulked like a hay-stack. None other -than the blacks could have started the sled out from the skids; and -while, with jerks and sudden snatches, the fierce brutes worked it out -of deep snow to the iced tracks, the loaders looked admiringly on. It -was a triumph in driving. Man and team worked like a clock, and, -returning blasphemous answers to the loaders' compliments, Michigan slid -off down the trail. - -To make up for his lost time, he urged the blacks to a trot, and so came -swinging down the incline at twice his usual speed. Not till he reached -the very edge did he see that the hay had been raked off the face of the -hill. A mask of ice, it glittered in the sun. - -Half-way down Carter stood with Joe. Looking up, they saw Michigan -poised on the top log, a red, sinister figure against the sky. He -seemed to pause, throw back on his lines--a quick, involuntary movement. -Then, craning forward, he glanced down that glittering stretch--a -comprehensive look that took in Carter, Joe, and their plan. - -"Give him a forkful under the runners as he goes by," Carter whispered. -"Otherwise we'll kill his team." - -A second, as aforesaid, the red teamster paused; then, loosing his -lines, he leaned over and lashed the stallion under the soft of the -belly. - -"My God!" Joe cried. - -He saw the black brute rear, snorting--saw the blacksnake bite the -mare's flank--saw the pair plunge over the grade; then water bathed his -eyes. He heard, however--heard the rush and roar, a thunder of hoofs as -the long, steel calkings cut through the ice and struck fire from the -face of the hill. He felt the wind as the sled passed, and waited for -the crash--which did not come. - -A voice, cold, deliberate, restored his vision. "I didn't think it was -in horse-flesh." Carter was gazing after team and sled, now a black -patch on the snow of the lake. "Beat us this time, Joe," he continued; -"but we'll fix him to-morrow." - -That evening, however, the red teamster enjoyed the fruits of his -exploit. It seasoned the beans at supper, sweetened the stable choring. -Opinion agreed that it was now "up" to the boss, but split on his -probable action, one-half the stable agreeing with Hines that Michigan -surely earned his discharge, the other half holding that settlement by -battle would be the certain ending. Neither event, however, had come to -pass by bedtime, and the mystery was intensified by the chucklings of -the road gang, which came in from work long after the teamsters retired. -Next morning, too, the loaders--evidently in the secret--added to the -suspense by asking the teamsters if they intended to toboggan down the -glide that trip. - -"Bet you don't!" they yelled after Michigan Red. - -Though not exactly nervous, the mystery yet affected the red teamster. -As his load slid through the forest uneasiness manifested itself in -thoughtful whistlings, broken song snatches, unnecessary talk to his -horses. Not that he was a whit afraid. The half-dozen or so men whom he -expected would try to enforce the new order could not have prevented him -from at least sending his team at the grade. The fierce soul of him -thrilled at the thought of opposition, and, coming out of the forest, he -set a pace that would have ridden down opposition. - -But he reined in at the hill. Instead of the force of his imaginings, -only Joe Legault stood at the foot of the glide. The hay had been -respread on its face, but--the road gang had built a rough bridge over a -deep gully, and now the glide led, straight as an arrow, out to the -lake. The racking curve was utterly abolished. - -Grinning, Joe said: "The boss allows that it's your privilege to kill -your own horses. So go it if you wanter. Hain't going to hurt his -sleds none." - -Michigan walked his horses. - -Carter had won out. Moreover, he had done it without the loss of -prestige that would have ensued by the usual brutal methods in vogue in -lumber-camps. Law, of a man or people, cannot endure, of course, -without force behind it. Yet behind his imperturbability, quiet -taciturnity, the men felt the power to enforce his commands. So his -authority was no more called in question. Not that envious spite ceased -to dog him. Hines, Shinn, and their coterie stood always ready to stir -up discontent, foment trouble. - -It was their sympathy that caused the cook to maintain one can of poor -baking-powder to be valid excuse for leaving. But Carter disposed of -minor troubles with the same easy good-humor that he had given to big -ones. - -"I reckon you've been scandalously mistreated," he told the cook. "I'm -right sorry to lose you. Must you go?" - -Mollified, the cook stayed. - -Then Baldy, chief of the "tote"-trail teamsters, rose to the point that -"thirty hun'red was load enough for drifted trails." - -"Thirty it is, Baldy," Carter cheerfully answered, and Baldy yanked -forty and forty-five hundred all winter over the worst of trails. - -He had proved himself in the mastership of men just at the time that -opportunity was holding out her hand, and proof and fruit of his winning -came the very day that saw the last load delivered at the dumps. "It is -a go!" The wire which announced, with this bit of slang, the successful -financing of his railroad projects was brought in by Baldy from Lone -Tree, and with it buttoned against his heart Carter made his way to the -stables where the teamsters were, as they thought, bedding up for the -last time. - -"We have feed for three months left," he said, "and I can promise work -through the summer. At what?" He turned, smiling, on Brady. "Never -mind; all those that want it kin have it till freeze-up. In the mean -time I'll feed an' care for your teams till the log-drive is down." - -Grumblers from the cradle, kickers born, teamsters and choppers had -looked forward to this last day in camp, swearing all that ten dollars a -day would not hire them for an hour longer. No, sirree--not an hour! -Now they looked their doubt. - -"What's the pay?" Brady asked. - -"Half a dollar a day more'n you're getting." - -"That beats farming in these parts. You kin sign me, boss." - -And me--me--me! The answers floated in from all over the stable. Only -a few of the older men elected to return to their farms, and after all -had spoken Carter turned to Michigan Red, who occupied his old perch on -the stallion's stall. - -"Well, Red?" - -"Didn't s'pose you'd need me." - -Carter went on writing. He could afford to be generous. He had beaten -the man at every point; to retain him where another would have -discharged him was, indeed, the crowning of his victory, and Michigan -knew it. Had he doubted, he had but to read it in the countenances of -his fellows. A good gambler, however, he hid resentment, and where a -poor loser would have taken his discharge he accepted re-employment. - -His red beard split in a sneering grin. "Oh, guess I'll trouble you for -a little longer." - -The day was eventful for another reason. Coming up from a short visit -to the settlements, Bender handed Carter a letter that evening, the -superscription of which sent the dark blood flooding over his neck, for -it was the first he had seen of Helen's writing these months. Was this -the answer of his longing? Had she sent--at last? His fingers trembled -as he tore the wrapping, then he paused, staring. It was his last -check, returned without an explanatory scrap. - -"She's hired to teach her old school again." Bender answered his blank -look. - - - - - *XV* - - *TRAVAIL* - - -If the white months seemed to lag with Carter up at the camp, they -dragged wearily with Helen down in the settlements. Christmas had been -particularly dreary, for it did not require a woman's marvellous memory -for anniversaries for her to live over again every incident and -experience of last Yuletide. In their living-room Carter had built a -chimney and fireplace of mud, Cree style, and on Christmas Eve she had -cuddled in against his broad breast and talked of a sweet possibility. -They had the usual pretty quarrel over sex and names--has the tongue one -good enough for the first-born? Then he had hung her stocking, and none -other would suit him, forsooth, but the one she was wearing. He had -laughed away her blushing protestations, and had kissed the white foot -and toes that squirmed in his big hand. Sitting alone this Christmas, -she had blushed at the memory; then a gush of tears had cooled her hot -cheeks, tears of mingled sorrow and thankfulness that their pretty dream -had not taken form in flesh. - -One January morning she sat, chin in hands, and stared across the -humming stove at the white drift outside. Nels, the Swedish hired man, -had killed three pigs for winter meat the day before, and with a touch -of humor that was foreign to his bleached complacency had set them on -all-fours in the snow. Stiff, frozen--so hard, indeed, that the -house-dog retired disconsolately after a fruitless tug at an iron -ear--they poked marble shoulders out of a drift. The eye of one was -closed in a cunning wink. His neighbor achieved a grin. The mouth of -the third was open and thrown back, as though defying death with -derisive laughter. - -Steeped in thought, Helen did not see the grim grotesques. These months -she had undergone three distinct changes of feeling. First she was -becomingly repentant. Viewed under the softening perspectives of time -and distance, Carter's crudities waned, while his strength and virtues -waxed. The insignificant sloughed away from his personality, leaving -only the strong, the virile. During this stage she formed small plans -towards reconciliation, and bided patiently at home, ceasing her visits -to Mrs. Leslie. Not that she felt them wrong, but, besides the shame -natural to her position, she liked to feel that she was gratifying what -she deemed her husband's prejudice; she experienced the satisfaction -which accrues from a penance self-imposed. - -When, however, he did not return, she relapsed into hurt silence--would -not speak of him to Jenny, nor listen when Bender dropped in on one of -his periodical visits with news from the camp. Lastly came cold -resentment, anger at the grass-widowhood that was being thrust upon her, -a feeling that was the more unbearable because she secretly admired his -boldness in cutting the knot of their difficulties. She recognized the -wisdom of the act. Had he not taken the initiative, the process of -disenchantment would have continued till she herself might have taken -the first step to end their misery. But the knowledge did not mitigate -the sting. He had forced the separation! The thought rankled and grew -more bitter day by day. - -This morning she was in a particularly dangerous mood. Conscious of her -original good intention, knowing that her fault had been the product of -conditions as much as her own weakness, she was ripe for revolt against -the entire scheme of things that had forced the lot of crabbed age upon -her flushed youth, compelling her to sit by a lonely fire. And as she -sat and brooded a clash of bells broke up her meditations; the door -opened, letting in a bitter blast that froze the warm interior air into -chilly fog, from the centre of which Mrs. Leslie emerged, heavily furred -and voluble as ever. - -"Anchorite!" she screamed. "Or is it anchoress? Three, four--no, six -visits you owe me. Explain! Bad weather? Hum!" She tilted her pretty -nose. "If I couldn't fib more artistically, Helen, I'd adhere to the -painful truth. You were afraid--of hubby." - -"I--I wasn't!" - -Mrs. Leslie surveyed the girl's flushed anger with sarcastic pity. -"Tut! tut! More fibs. Huddled over that stove, you make the loveliest -study of despair. You have been crying, too." - -"I--I haven't!" The lines of Huddled Despair flowed into Radiant Anger. - -"Your eyes are red?" - -"Well, if they are--if I did--it was through anger." - -Mrs. Leslie accepted the modified admission. "That's right, my dear. -He--no man is worth the compliment of regretful tears. They are all -foolish, selfish, fickle as children. They cry for love like a child -for the moon, throw it away when the toy wearies, howl if another tries -to pick it up. They only value the unattainable. Bah!" - -The ejaculation was comical in its feigned disgust, but just then Helen -had ears only for the serious or sympathetic--preferably the latter. -"Tell me, Elinor," she asked, "do you really think I have deserved this -at his hands?" - -"No." For once in her life Mrs. Leslie dealt in undiluted -truth--because, perhaps, lying would not serve her purpose. "One could -understand his pique--" With incredible hardihood, considering the part -she herself had played, she commented: "Really, my dear, you ought not -to have done it. But he has been altogether too severe--unforgiving. I -don't see how you stand it. I should freeze these cold nights without -some one to warm my feet on." - -"To think"--speech was such a relief after months of bitter silence, and -Helen never even noticed the other's funny climax--"to think that this -should be dealt to me by a man of whose very existence I was unconscious -a short two years ago! Is he a god to exercise such power--to command -me to eat the bread-and-water of affliction during his pleasure? Why, I -was twenty-two before I ever saw him! Doesn't it seem ridiculous--silly -as though one pebble on a beach were to establish limits for another? -They roll and rub where and with whom they list, and why shouldn't I?" -Ignoring the fact that monogamy was her sex's greatest achievement, and -that the first woman who bartered love for protection, cookery for -maintenance, had not driven such a bad bargain, she finished: "Wouldn't -it be funny if pebbles were condemned to rub and roll in definite pairs -till winds and waves had buried one or other affinity deep in the sands. -Why--" - -"In other words," Mrs. Leslie interrupted, "why should vertical -distances count for more than horizontal--death for more than -distance--seven feet under the sod carry advantages and opportunities -that do not go with seventy miles above? There isn't any reason. It is -just so." - -"Well, I won't stand it!" Rebellion inhered in Helen's stamp. "I -won't! I won't! I won't!" - -Mrs. Leslie shrugged her hopelessness. "Thousands of women have to. -What _can_ you do, my dear?" - -"Do?" the girl answered, hotly. "I have already done it--applied for -and secured my old school. Unfortunately, I must remain here till the -spring term opens." - -Now to accuse Mrs. Leslie of trailing a definite purpose were to reveal -lamentable ignorance of her ruling traits. She was no fell adventuress -of romance, stealthy of plot, remorseless in pursuit. Persistence was -foreign to her light character. Unstable as water, she veered like a -shuttlecock under the breath of emotion, yet, withal, grasped speedily -at such straws as the winds of opportunity brought within reach. If she -lacked force to plot Carter's capture, or to revenge herself for his -slight through Helen, she was willing enough now that the wind served. - -"In the mean time," she said, "you will stay with me?" - -"Oh, I couldn't do that!" Oh, complex feminine nature! Helen balked at -the freedom of her agonizings. The quick earnestness of her answer told -of the hope that still glowed in the ashes of despair. - -But Mrs. Leslie turned hope against her. "Oh yes," she mocked. "You -were not afraid of him; certainly not. But that is not the way to get -him back, my dear. If you would regain your recreant, give him a rival." - -Now, though this piece of worldly wisdom was strictly in line with -Helen's crooked parable of the pebbles, the idea sounded grossly common -in plain words. Hastily she said, "You don't suppose that I would--" - -"No! no!" Mrs. Leslie skilfully retrieved her error. "I only meant that -it would be as well to keep him on the anxious seat. Never let a man -feel too sure of you--it isn't healthy, for him or you. I wouldn't wait -here till it pleased him to extend magnificent forgiveness for so small -a fault. Go out--visit--let him see that you can be happy without -him--that you have still attractions for others." - -"But I don't care. Why do you persist, Elinor, in hinting that I still -love him? I don't." - -"Then you'll come with me?" - -"I'd like to, but I can't leave Jenny alone with Nels." - -Mrs. Leslie might have replied that this was exactly what she would have -to do when school opened; instead, she contemplated the love which -masqueraded behind this unparalleled obstinacy from sphinxlike eyes. -"Jenny must be dying to see her friends in Lone Tree," she suggested. -"Let her take a vacation. As for Nels--he can bach it." - -Helen looked troubled. It was really astonishing to see how she ran -from liberty. But she had, perforce, to make some show of living up to -her professions, so she called Jenny and anxiously inquired if she -_didn't_ want to visit her friends. Unfortunately, Jennie had been -oppressed these many days with a longing to see the good doctor, and the -expression of her wish carried the day for Mrs. Leslie. - -"Oh, well," she sighed; and Mrs. Leslie prudently confined her laugh -within her own hollow sepultures. - -Accepting the invitation with misgivings, she was astonished, on her -return home, to find how thoroughly she had enjoyed her two weeks' -visit. Yet it was only natural. Besides the change, Mrs. Leslie had -been at pains to amuse and entertain her. There were cosey chats over -the teacups on matters dear to the feminine heart, and daily -sleigh-rides--mad dashes over hard-packed trails to music of jingling -bells. Once the drive was extended as far as Regis barracks, twenty -miles to the west, and Helen was introduced to captains of the mounted -police in scarlet splashed with gold, their ladies, the agents and -clerks of the government land office--pleasant people at first sight, of -whom she was to learn more. Of nights, Molyneux and other -remittance-bachelors would drop in, and, with drawn curtains excluding -the vast arctic night, there would be music, songs, games. Small wonder -that she enjoyed herself, or that, the ice thus broken, she gravitated -between home and the Leslies' during the remainder of that winter. - -Speaking of Molyneux, a greater surprise inhered in the fact that she -had been able to meet him without embarrassment, a condition that was -due to the tact and real consideration which he displayed. At their -first meeting he paused only for a pleasant greeting; next, he ventured -a chat; and these lengthened until he felt safe in staying out an -evening. - -He marked his greatest gain the day that--Leslie being under the weather -with a cold--she allowed him to drive her home. By those gentlemen, the -romanticists, this fact would not have been accorded a tender -implication. They paint love in colors fast as patent dyes: good girls -love once; or, if a second passion be grudgingly allowed, it is only -after the first is safely bestowed in cold storage underground. In face -of the fact that the little god occasionally shoots a double arrow, that -the sigh of many a wife would be unwelcome if intelligible to her -husband, that many a maid has slipped into spinsterhood between two -passions, they lay down as the basic principle of ethical romance the -canon that neither wife nor maid can entertain two loves other than in -sequence. - -Now Helen may not have been in this case, and if she had it goes without -saying that she would never have admitted the preference even to -herself. For she had been raised in the very shadow of the aforesaid -canon. Yet he had certainly won on her--for good reason. In person he -was above the average of good looks; his manners touched standard. In -that he, alone of the English set, had been able to wring a living from -the stern northland without the aid of a fat allowance, he commanded her -respect. Also she thought that he was trying to sink his past--he -entertained the same illusion--and as every good girl loves to imagine -herself as an "influence," the thought gave her satisfaction. Molyneux -had no cause of complaint. - -To do him justice, he tried, in a slovenly fashion, yet still tried, to -live up to this, the one pure love of his life--purity must be -interpreted as applying to his intention rather than motive. Of all the -remittance-men who frequented Mrs. Leslie's house, he, at this time, -showed the least moral taint. Often he thrust in between Helen and -things offensive. Though, during Helen's visits, Mrs. Leslie made some -attempt to put her house in order, she could not always bridle her male -guests, who smoked Leslie's imported tobacco and offered herself veiled -love. But Molyneux sterilized most of their blackguardism, nipping -entendre with a chilly stare, destroying double meanings by instant and -literal interpretation--did it so effectually that she never noticed the -pervading sensualism. Indeed, he did it so much as to draw Mrs. -Leslie's fire. "Virtuous boy," she said, teasing him one day. "You -almost convert me to the true-love theory." - -His grimace gauged the depth of his reformation. To him as to Mrs. -Leslie the text could be fitted: "Can the leopard change his spots or -the Ethiop his skin?" Really he had not changed in quality or purpose; -it was the same Molyneux in pursuit of the same end. His tactics were -merely altered to suit his game. He would, of course, have denied -this--probably with the warmth of honest conviction. At times his -reflections on the subject attained highly moral altitudes. He had -known from the first that Helen could never live with Carter! Duty -certainly called him to end her bondage! Yes, he believed himself -honest, and would continue to so believe until some unexpected check -loosed the Old Adam again. This was proved by the flashes of passion at -the very thought of failure. It would have been much more natural for -him to have attempted a raid on Carter's Eden. But, warned by previous -experience, he waited, waited, waited, and watched as the snake may have -watched the maiden Eve over the threshold of Adam's garden. Now that -time seemed to have verified his prediction, that, albeit with hesitant -steps, Helen was approaching the gate of her own accord, he held back -the hot hand that fain would have plucked her forth lest he should -startle her into flight. - -There were many watchers of the girl's progression during the winter -months: Mrs. Leslie, who might be said to await the moment when a shove -might throw the girl off her balance headlong into Molyneux's arms; the -settlers, who anticipated such a denouement with scandalous tongues; the -remittance-men, who betted on the result, basing odds on her lonely -condition. To these there could be but one end. Always the human soul -reaches for happiness, and the fact that she had once mistaken Dead Sea -fruit for love's golden apples would not prevent her from tiptoeing to -pluck again. Would she pluck? - -Molyneux, for one, was sure that she would, and, having the courage of -his conviction, put his hope into speech, choosing an opportune time. -Nels always drove her over to Leslie's, and at first brought her home. -But by the middle of February the latter part of the task fell by -consent of all to Molyneux, and he spoke while driving her home one -afternoon. - -"Read this," he said, handing her a telegram that called him to his -father's death-bed. - -"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, impulsively. - -"For what," he questioned, "his sickness or my absence?" - -"Both," she frankly answered. "You have been--very nice to me. I shall -miss you." - -Now this was all very proper, but when he stated that he should be gone -at least seven weeks she ought to have veiled her concern. But she did -not, and the regret that swam in the hazel eyes strengthened his -purpose. "Before I go I must say something. How long is our present -relation to last?" - -The raise of her eyebrows might have meant anything. He took it as -encouragement, and ran on, "You know that I love--have always loved -you." - -Here, according to the canons, she ought to have withered him. Instead -she gave him the truth. "I am not blind." - -"Thanks for your candor. Now, a step further--do you intend to remain -his bondwoman?" - -This was harder, yet her answer correctly interpreted her feeling. -"I--I--really don't know." - -The doubt spurred him. "You do not love him. You could not--after the -way he has treated you. You must have love. A glance at your face -would tell a dullard that it is as necessary to your existence as air or -water. You cannot be happy without it. It is life to you; more than -sustenance. You must be wrapped in it, touch it at every point, feel it -everywhere around you. Your being cries out for a passion -all-absorbing; you will take nothing less. I would--" - -"Give me such love?" She had thrilled under his truthful analysis of -her nature, and now she cried out the passion of her sex, the eternal -desire for a love everlasting as that of a mother. "Is such -possible?--a love that never stales, that endures after the hot blood -cools and beauty fades? Could you love me through old age? No, no! A -woman can, but never a man!" - -"I can! By God! I can!" he cried, blazing in response to her passion. -"I'll prove it, for sooner or later you are going to love me." - -She laughed a little wearily. "There spake the bold man. Well--you -have my good wishes." - -"Your--good--wishes?" - -"Don't flatter yourself." Her staying hand checked his enthusiasm. -"You said just now that I didn't love--my husband. Perhaps you are -right. I don't know. I have no standard by which to judge, and only -love could supply one. So far--you have failed to do so. I like -you--very much; but--if I ever love again, the man must lift me out of -myself, make me forget--him, myself, the whole world." - -"I'll do it!" he confidently exclaimed; then, sobering, added: "I want -you to promise one thing. It isn't much--simply to give serious thought -to your position while I am away--to remember what I have just told you -and to forget that first foolish mistake that cost me so much. Now will -you?" - -"Surely," she honestly answered. - -"And--if possible--give me an answer?" - -She nodded, and he was content to leave it there. They were now on the -last mile, and they made it in silence, he plunged in delicious reverie, -she very thoughtful. Looking up as the cutter rolled and bumped over -the frozen stable-yard, he caught her looking at him with soft -compassion. - -"Well?" - -She smiled. "Did you really--suffer?" - -"Hell!" - -Grasping her hand, he had almost kissed it when she jerked it suddenly -away. "There's Karl--and Jenny--standing in the door." Noting his -sudden discomposure, she added: "Never mind, she didn't see you. Won't -you come in?" - -"Can't--put me late for the choring." - -This was only one of a dozen times that he had refused the invitation. -A little surprised, she watched him turn and drive away, then she saw -Nels coming up from the stable, and the thought was lost in wonder as to -whether or no he had seen Molyneux take her hand. - -Now, as a matter of fact, Nels had; moreover, he mentioned it to Jenny -as he helped her wipe the supper dishes, and thereby earned much -trouble. "I tank," he observed, "something is doings. Cappan he taken -the mistress hand. Pratty soon the boss no have womans." - -His chuckle died under her wrathful stare. "Mention that to any one, -Nels, an' Mr. Bender 'll break every bone in your body." - -It was not so easy to dispose of her own misgivings. As, that evening, -she arranged the dishes in the homemade plate-rack, she turned sombre -eyes on Helen, musing by the stove. Often her lips opened, but sound -trembled on its thresholds. She kept her own counsel till Bender -dropped in on his next visit. - -It was perfectly natural for her to turn to him for counsel. Coming to -her as he did, in the moment of her sore trouble, her girl's heart had -opened and vented on him the love that had been prisoned since the death -of her mother; and ever since a perfect understanding of kindred natures -had obtained between them. - -"They're talking about her in the settlements something scan'lous," she -told him. "Tongues is clacking from here to Lone Tree. Why _don't_ Mr. -Carter come home? Kain't you persuade him?" - -But Bender shook his head. "No, he's stiffer'n all he-- Beg your -pardon! I mean he's dreadful sot in his mind. I wouldn't envy the one -that went to advise him." - -Before going away Bender touched on a matter that was now old history in -their intercourse. "Changed your mind yet, little girl?" - -It was now Jenny's turn to sorrowfully shake her head. "It would be my -an' pleasure to be wife to a big, good man like you. But I just kain't -bring myself to put you where any man could cast my shame in your face." - -"Oh, shore!" he protested. "You was that little--a teeny bit of a -thing, jes' seventeen--on'y a baby. Who'd be holding it agin you? -Besides--he's in England." - -"Yes--he's in England," Jenny slowly repeated. "But--" - -He did not see the queer look she sent after him as he rode away. - - - - - *XVI* - - *A HOUSE-PARTY* - - -One morning, some three weeks after Molyneux's departure, Helen sat in -her doorway reading, as certain an indication of coming spring as the -honk of the wild geese speeding northward on the back of the amorous -south wind. As yet the prairie sloughs wore mail of ice, but from dizzy -heights those keen-eyed voyagers discerned tricklings and wee pools -under sheltered forest banks, sufficient till the laggard sun should -smite the snows and fill the air with tinklings and gurglings, loose the -strange sound of running waters on the frozen silence. Another month -would do it. Already the drifts were packing, and the hard trails -traversed the sinking snows like mountain chains on a relief map. In -Helen's door-yard stratas of yellow chips, debris of the winter's -furious firing, were beginning to appear; with them, lost articles; -indeed, Nels was gobbling joyously over the retrieval of an axe, when -Leslie's team and cutter came swinging into the yard. - -Mrs. Leslie was driving, and, seeing Helen, she screamed from a hundred -yards: "They are coming! All of 'em!" - -"Who?" Helen asked, when the ponies stopped at the door. - -"Why, Edith Newton, Mrs. Jack Charters, Sinclair Rhodes--you remember? -I told you that I should give a house-party for the Regis folks when the -frosts let up. Hurry and pack up your war-paint! They'll be here -to-morrow, and I need your help. No refusal! Fred is going in to Lone -Tree to-morrow and Jenny can go down with him. Nels will cook for -himself, won't you, Nels?" - -"I tank I can cook, yes." Nels ceased his jubilations over the axe long -enough to season his assent with a bleached grin. - -"There! It's all fixed." Bustling inside, she talked volubly while -assisting in Helen's selections. "Yes, take that; you look your -sweetest in it; and I imported Captain Chapman especially for you. That -also; you'll need it evenings. No, Captain Charters isn't coming. Some -Indian trouble called him west. Oh, Mrs. Jack won't care--I'm the -loser, for he was always my cavalier." - -Driving home, she rattled steadily, entertaining Helen with descriptions -of her expected guests, giving their pedigrees, aristocratic -connections, while she spiced her discourse with malicious fact. -Sinclair Rhodes had secured his appointment as land agent at Regis -through distant cousinship to the governor-general. And why not? The -offices ought to go to well-bred people! He had money, must have, for -his salary and expenses were out of all proportion--so much so as to -cause comment by malicious people, envious souls! What if he did make a -little, as they said, on the side? The government could afford it; and -every one knew what Canadians were in office! People who live in glass -houses, and so forth! It was simply racial envy! She was also -becomingly indignant over the action of certain Canadians who had made -trouble for Captain Chapman in the matter of mounted-police supplies. -What figure did a few tons of provisions cut in a gentleman's accounts? -These commercial intellects, with their mathematical exactness, were -horrid. Newton? He was an appointee of Rhodes. No, no relation. She -waived further description of the Newtons, omitted the pregnant fact -that Charles Newton's presence cut as little figure in his wife's social -calculations as Captain Charters' absence did in those of Mrs. Jack. - -Caution, doubtless, counselled the omission. The quail is not flushed -till the net be spread. Yet the reservation was hardly necessary in the -light of Helen's condition. Judgment of another's action is colored by -one's own mental state, and she was not so likely to be shocked by one -who had defied the conventions against which she herself was in open -mutiny. Anyway, she liked Mrs. Jack at first sight, despite the -scandalous manner in which she flirted with Charles Newton the first -night at table. Big, tall, and fair, large eyes expressed her saving -grace, an unparalleled frankness that seemed to sterilize her -flirtations and rob them of impropriety. Twice during the meal she -retailed Newton's tender asides to his wife, asking, laughingly, if she -recognized the vintage. - -However, being as yet in happy ignorance of many things that would soon -cause her serious disquiet, Helen thoroughly enjoyed that first evening. -The well-appointed table, with its sparkling glass, silver, snowy -napery; the well-groomed people and their correct speech alike fed her -starved aesthetic senses while they aroused dormant social qualities. -She laughed, chattered, capped Mrs. Jack's sallies, displaying animation -and wit that simply astonished Mrs. Leslie. Her wonder, indeed, caused -Edith Newton to whisper in Mrs. Jack's ear: - -"Elinor looks as though she had imported a swan in mistake for a -duckling. Look at Sinclair--positively smitten. Giving her all his -attention, though he took Elinor in. The girl seems to like him, too." - -Mrs. Jack's big eyes turned to the laughing face that was raised up to -Rhodes. "Don't believe a word he says, my dear," she suddenly called -across the table. "And look out for him. He's dangerous." - -Though she laughed, Rhodes must have sensed a serious motive, for he -glanced up in quick annoyance. "Do I look it?" he asked, turning again -to Helen. - -Nature does not lie. His narrowly spaced eyes, salient facial angles, -dull skin, heavy lips carried her certificate of degeneracy. A -physiognomist would have pronounced him dangerous to innocence as a wild -beast on less evidence, but to Helen's inexperience he appeared as a man -unusually handsome, profile or front face. The significant angles did -not alter the good modelling of his nose and chin or affect the -regularity of his features. Tall, slim, irreproachable in manner and -dress, there was no scratch to reveal the base metal beneath his -electroplate refinement. - -"You certainly don't," she answered, laughing. - -"Then," he said, with mock gravity, "I can patiently suffer the sting of -calumny." - -"Calumny?" Mrs. Jack echoed, teasingly. "_Calumny_? What's that?" - -"Synonyme for conscience," Edith Newton put in, with a spice of malice. -For though the conquest of Rhodes--to which Regis gossip wickedly laid -Newton's presence in the land office--was now stale with age and -tiresome to herself, she was selfish enough to resent his defection. - -"Sinclair found it while rummaging Fred's coat for matches," her husband -added. Leslie's simplicity was as much of a joke to them as it was with -the Canadian settlers, and, under cover of the laugh, Chapman--a big -blond of that cavalry, mustached type which wins England's cricket -matches while losing all her wars--leaned over and whispered in Newton's -ear: "Leslie will lose more than his conscience if he doesn't look out. -La belle Elinor is madly smitten." Aloud, he said, "Sinclair would -hardly know what to do with it, Mrs. Newton." - -"Hearken not to the tongue of envy, Mrs. Carter," Rhodes retaliated upon -his tormentors. "I'm a very responsible person, I assure you." - -She laughed at his mock seriousness, and, believing it all fooling, gave -him so much of her attention that evening as to cause more than one -comment. "Rhodes is making heavy running," Newton remarked once to -Chapman, who replied, conceitedly stroking his mustache, "Wait till I -get in my innings." - -"After me," Newton answered. "I come next at the bat." - -Ignorant of this and other by-play, however, Helen thoroughly enjoyed -the first days of the party. On the frontier, amusement is a home-made -product, and shares the superiority of domestic jams, jellies, and -pickles over the article of commerce. They caught the fickle damsel -Pleasure coming and going, reaping the satisfaction of both spectator -and entertainer. By day they skated, drove, or curled on a rink which -the male guests laid out; nights, they sang, danced, played games, and -romped like children. - -Apart from a certain freedom in their intercourse, which she attributed -to long acquaintance, Helen found nothing objectionable in the demeanor -of her new friends during those first few days. On the contrary, she -thought them a trifle dull. Their preglacial and ponderous humor -excited her risibility; she laughed as often at as with them. At other -times she could not but feel that they regarded her as alien, a pretty -pagan without their social pale, and she would revolt against their -enormous egotism, insolent national conceit. She broke many a lance on -that impregnable shield. - -"You English," she flashed back when, one evening, Newton reflected on -American pronunciation of certain English family names--"you English -remind me of the Jews, with their sibboleth and shibboleth. Is your -aristocracy so doubtful of its own identity that it is compelled to -hedge itself against intrusion by the use of passwords. You may call -'Cholmondeley' 'Chumley,' if you choose, but we commit no crime in -pronouncing it as spelled." - -Again, when Edith Newton rallied her on some crude custom which she -maintained was peculiarly American, Helen delivered a sharp _riposte_. -"No, I never saw it done at home; but I have heard that it is quite -common among English emigrants on transatlantic liners." Such tiffs -were, however, rare; and, to do them justice, men and women hastened to -sacrifice national conceit on the altars of her wounded -susceptibilities. - -Offence came later, and on quite another score. At first she liked the -attentions paid her; the gallantry of the men put her on better terms -with herself, renewed the confidence which had diminished to the -vanishing-point during her months of loneliness. But when constant -association thawed the reserve natural to first acquaintance, and -freedom evolved into familiarity, her instincts took alarm. Distressed, -she observed the other women to see if she had been singled out. But -no, they seemed quite comfortable under similar attentions, and they -rallied her when she unfolded her misgivings at afternoon tea. - -"You shouldn't be so pretty, my dear," Mrs. Jack said, laughing. "What -can the poor men do?" Then they made fun of her scruples, satirizing -conventions and institutions which she had always regarded as necessary, -if not God-ordained. - -"Marriage," Edith Newton once cynically exclaimed, "is merely a badge of -respectability, useful as a shield from the slings and arrows." Then, -from the depths of her own degeneracy, she evolved the utterance: "Men -are all beasts beneath the skin. Wise women use them for pleasure or -profit." - -Helen revolted at that; it transcended her mutiny. But few people are -made of martyr stuff--perhaps fortunately so; martyrs are uncomfortable -folk, and, wise in her eternal generation, nature sprinkles them lightly -over the mass of common clay. The average person easily takes the color -of environment, so why not Helen? Thinking that perhaps she was a little -prudish, she stifled her fears, tried to imitate the nonchalance of the -others. She even made a few tentative attempts at daring. Alas! as -well expect a rabbit to ruffle it with wolves. Such immediate and -unwelcome results followed that she retired precipitously behind -ramparts of blushing reserve. But the damage was done. Thereafter -Chapman, Newton, Rhodes, one or another, was constantly at her elbow; -she was unpleasantly conscious that, having let down her fences, they -looked upon her as free game. - -The thought stirred her to fight. Chapman she disposed of with a single -rebuff that sent him back to Mrs. Jack's side. But Newton proved -unmanageable. Impervious to snubs, his manner conveyed his idea that her -modesty was simply a blind for the others. His familiarities bordered -on license. A good singer, he always asked her to play his -accompaniments of evenings, and she would sicken as he used the pretence -of turning a leaf to lean heavily upon her shoulder. At other times he -made occasion to touch her--would pick threads from her jacket; lean -across her to speak to her neighbor at table. - -By such tactics he brought her, one morning, to great confusion. A Cree -Indian had driven in from the Assiniboin reserve with bead-work, -moccasins, and badger-skin mittens which he wished to trade for flour or -bacon. With the other women Helen was bending over to examine his -wares, when Newton entered the kitchen. Stepping quietly up from -behind, he laid a hand on Helen's hair. Taking him for one of the other -women, she suffered his fondling till Mrs. Leslie, who knew he was -there, asked his opinion on a tobacco-pouch. Then, before she could -move, speak, cast off his hand, he pressed her head against his wife's -dark curls. - -"Just look at the contrast!" he admiringly exclaimed, and so robbed her -anger. - -Yet so evident was the intent behind the excuse that even the Cree -detected the sham. From Helen his dark glance travelled to Newton and -back again. "He your man?" he asked. - -Vexed to the point of tears, she shook her head and bent over the -bead-work to hide her embarrassment. But the Cree's rude notions of -etiquette had been jarred. "He touch your hair!" - -So simple, his comment yet pierced to the heart of the matter. Newton -had fondled her hair, crown and symbol of her womanhood, a privilege of -marriage. In an Indian tribe the offence would have loosed the slipping -knife; a settler would have resented it with knarled fist. But here the -women tittered, while Chapman, who just then sauntered in, laughed. - -Emboldened, perhaps, by immunity, the man's offensiveness developed into -actual insult the evening of that same day. They had all been pulling -taffy in the kitchen, and, passing through a dark passage to the -living-room, Helen felt an arm slip about her waist. Newton's face was -still tingling from a vigorous slap when she confronted him before them -all in the living-room. Even his hardihood quailed before her flushed -and contemptuous anger; he was not quite so ready with his excuse. - -"I _beg_ your _pardon_, Mrs. Carter! Really, I mistook you for my -wife." - -It was a lie on the face of it, and, barbed with stinging truth, her -retort drew a peal of laughter from the others. "Indeed? Your excuse is -more remarkable than your mistake." - -Offended as much by the laugh as the insult, she seated herself on a -lounge by Leslie, the one man with whom she always felt safe. In him -the stigma of degeneracy took another form; the tired blood expressed -itself in a prodigious simplicity. He lacked even the elements of vice. -As his wife put it, "Fred is too stupid to be wicked." Yet, withal, he -was very much of a man as far as his chuckleheadedness permitted, and -now he offered real sympathy. - -"It was a caddish trick, Mrs. Carter, and I mean to tell him so." - -"Oh no!" she pleaded. "It wouldn't improve matters to make a scene, and -he's not likely to offend again. Please don't? Stay here--with me." - -"But I'm your host. Really, he deserves a thrashing." - -"No, no! Stay here! I don't feel equal to the others." - -"I never do." Sitting again, he turned on her a look of beaming -fellowship. "The girls all yawn and look terribly bored when I try to -amuse them--except you. They don't seem to care for horses and dogs, the -things that interest me." - -If, as a conversationalist, he did not shine, he at least brought her -the first easy moments she had known that day, and she turned a -sympathetic ear to some of his prattle. Indicating Rhodes, who was -leaning over Mrs. Leslie, he said: "You know I don't like that sort of -thing. Elinor says I'm old-fashioned, and I suppose she knows. Of -course she wouldn't do anything that wasn't proper, but a fellow has his -feelings, and it doesn't take a crime to hurt them, does it? She's up -on the conventions; but it does seem to me that if a fellow has anything -to say to another fellow's wife he ought to say it aloud." - -Astonished that his dulness should have sensed the pervading sensualism, -she studied him while he watched his wife, in his eyes something of that -pitiful pleading one sees in those of a beaten dog. His words banished -her doubts as to whether her own misgivings did not root in -hypercritical standards--restored her viewpoint. All week the atmosphere -had thickened, as constant association banished reserve, and to-day -freedom had attained its meridian. It was not the matter but the manner -of conversation that filled her with a great uneasiness--the whispers, -asides, smiling stares, conscious laughter. The vitiated atmosphere -caused her a feeling of suffocation, and in the midst of her sick -revulsion Leslie dropped a remark that came to her like a breath of -ozone. - -"I was awfully sorry to hear of the trouble between you and Carter. I -always thought him _such_ a fine fellow. He hadn't much use for me--any -of us--still I liked him. He was a bit on the rough, of course; but, I -tell you, character counts more than culture, strength than refinement." - -Character counts more than culture, strength than refinement? To his -simplicity had been vouched wisdom worthy of a philosopher. The phrase -stabbed her. Before her rose a vision of her husband as she had seen him -that last miserable night, cold, stern, inexorable, in the loom of the -moonlight. In view of that colossal memory, the Englishmen about her -dwarfed to effeminate insignificance. Vividly her own doubting -recurred. And she had traded him--for this! The thought brought -wretchedness too great for concealment. Her uneasiness was so manifest -as to form the theme of a bedroom conversation. - -Though comfortable--the one frame house in the settlements, a palace to -Canadian eyes--Leslie's house boasted only two bedrooms; so while the -men made shift on shake-downs, Helen shared Mrs. Leslie's rooms, Edith -Newton and Mrs. Jack the other. - -As she braided her hair for the night, the latter lady opened the -conversation. "Did you notice how uncomfortable little Carter was this -evening? She is a nice little thing, but she doesn't mix. I don't see -why Elinor invited her." - -"You don't, eh?" Edith Newton mumbled a mouthful of pins. "You are -slow, Maud." - -"No--only lazy. Why should I puzzle over things when you are here? -I'll bet you have pumped everybody dry long ago. Now--dispense!" - -"I don't go round with my eyes shut," the other calmly answered. "To -begin: Calvert Molyneux is completely gone on little Carter, whose -husband, it seems, left her because of some slight." - -"Hum!" Mrs. Jack elevated her straight brows. "Foolish man to leave her -to Calvert. So that is why he went home! Exits till the tarnished -pearl be regulped by the conjugal oyster? Clever!" - -"On the contrary"--she curled a full red lip--"he contemplates -_honorable_ marriage--dalliance, Dakota, divorce, everything that begins -with D, down to eventual desertion, if I know anything of Calvert. But -fancy--HE!" - -"'The devil in love, the devil a husband would be,'" Mrs. Jack -misquoted. - -"'The devil married, the devil a husband was he,'" Edith Newton -finished. "But he is not married yet. She holds him off--foolishly. -For you know Calvert, good in streaks, but ruled by his emotions and -ruthless when they command. If she turns him down--" - -"She'll need to keep him at longer distance than this house affords. -But Elinor?--this doesn't explain her. She's beastly selfish under her -jolly little skin. Why is she posing as aid and advocate of love?" - -"In love with Carter hubby--or was would be more correct, in view of her -carryings-on with Sinclair. But the Carter attack, I understand, was -very severe while it lasted. Think of it, Maud, Elinor to fall in love -with a settler!" - -Mrs. Jack elevated naked shoulders. "Not at all surprising. Just the -itch of her rotten blood for a few sound corpuscles. I've felt it -myself at times. Don't look so shocked--you know we are rotten." - -"Maud! Maud!" - -Humming a bar of "La Boheme," Mrs. Jack regarded her companion through -narrowed lids. "I believe, Edith, you keep up appearances with -yourself. Why not be natural for a change? But, as you say, Elinor -seems to have made a complete convalescence. Did you _ever_ see a woman -make _such_ a projectile of herself? Positively hurls herself at -Sinclair. But tell me more about the Carter man. How did he treat her -rabies?" - -"Cold-water cure. Turned her down--flat." - -"So in revenge she's trying to besmirch the wife? The little devil! I -call that pretty raw, Edith." - -The other shrugged. "Oh, well, it is her pie, and if she prefers it -uncooked it is none of our business. Better keep your fingers out of it, -Maud. Struggle with your good intentions." - -Mrs. Jack smiled sweetly. "My dear, am I in the habit of messing alien -pies?" - -"Not unless you covet the meat." - -"Well, I'm not hankering after either Calvert or Carter hubby, though I -must say that I like his specifications. Showed awfully good taste both -in selecting his wife and rejecting Elinor. Fancy! a virtuous man--in -this day!" - -By this time Edith Newton was disposed in bed. A sleepy answer came -from under the clothing. "Proves he hadn't the honor of your -acquaintance." - -"Nor yours," Mrs. Jack retorted. - -Her flippancy masked a disquiet so grave as to drive away the desire for -sleep. Clad only in her bed-gown, she drew a chair up to the stove, -which returned her thoughtful gaze through two red monocles of -isinglass. In her fair-play was associated with its companion virtue -frankness, and in no wise could she read a mite of the former quality -into Elinor Leslie's intent towards Helen. After many uneasy -shruggings, she rose, took the lamp, and walked into the other bedroom. - -"Misplaced my comb," she answered Mrs. Leslie's sleepy inquiry. "Lend -me yours." Then she paused at the foot of the bed. - -Helen had coiled her hair for the night, but its unruly masses had -loosened and ran, a perfect cataract of gold, over her pillow. Against -that auriferous background lay her head and face, with its delicate -creams and pinks sinking into the plumpness of one white arm. The other -was folded over the softness of her bosom. Mrs. Jack thought her asleep -till her eyes opened, then, returning the girl's smile, she tiptoed back -to her fire. - -"It's a damned shame," she told herself, profanely, but truly, and with -such vigor that Edith Newton sleepily asked: "What's the matter? Aren't -you ever coming to bed, Maud?" - -"Saying my prayers. Go to sleep." - -"Put in a word for me," the other murmured. - -"The Lord knows that you need it." Mrs. Jack glanced at the bed, then -returned to her musings. "Of course she's a little fool. If she goes -back to her husband she will have to settle down to the humdrum of -settler life--raise calves, chickens, pigs, and children in the fear of -the Lord, with only a church picnic or some such wild dissipation to -break the deadly monotony. A pleasing prospect, I must say. But if it -suits her--well, I'm not going to see her delivered, bound and bleating, -into the hands of the devil, _alias_ Calvert Molyneux. It seems a shame, -either way, but she undoubtedly loves her settler hubby, and she's just -the kind to eat her heart out through remorse and shame. And here is -Elinor blackening her reputation with the pig settlers to whom she must -look for a living, making reconciliation impossible! Well, I'm going to -speak to the little fool to-morrow." - -This she did, making her opportunity by carrying Helen off to her -bedroom, where, having disposed her victim in a comfortable chair, she -herself snuggled down upon the bed and went with customary frankness -straight to the heart of her subject. "I want to know, Helen Carter, -why you are here?" - -Puzzled, Helen stared; then, interpreting by the smile, she answered, -"I--really, I--don't know." - -"A--pretty--poor--reason!" She shook her finger in affected anger. -"Don't you _know_ that you don't belong? Now don't flare up! If I were -Edith Newton, or Elinor, the cat, you might suspect a reflection. It -isn't that you are below grade--just the opposite. Frankly, my dear, we -are a rotten lot. A sweet girl, with conscience and morality has no -business among us. We couldn't scrape up enough of either article to -outfit a respectable cat. Don't blush. I'm not envying you your -conscience. It is a most uncomfortable asset, and, given choice of two -evils, I'd take a harelip. But, as you have one--well, you'd better -mizzle--go home, you know." - -Having eased herself by this delivery, Mrs. Jack sighed, sat up, rolled -herself a cigarette, and went on, after a contented puff: "Don't tell on -me, my dear. Not that I care a whoop--that's American, isn't it? I -love your slang; it is so expressive and comfortable to the feelings. -But, you see, rakishness has no attractions for the fool male of our -species. He resents any infringement of his monopoly. Even such a -degenerate ass as Charles Newton prefers school-girl simplicity. So one -must needs simulate virgin innocence, however painful. That's more of -your delightful slang. Now--when are you going?" - -The question anticipated the conclusion of Helen's midnight tossings; -but, if unchanged in substance, this had nevertheless been modified by -cooler morning reflections. She stated the qualifications--Jenny was -visiting in Lone Tree, and would not return till Saturday. Only two more -days! Her visit would then come to a natural end, so why offend by -abrupt departure? - -Mrs. Jack laughed. "I don't think Elinor would be so very dreadfully -offended. Why? Well, it is ungracious to criticise one's hostess, -but--you have trapped her rabbit." - -"Her--rabbit?" - -"Yes--Sinclair Rhodes." - -"Why, he paid me less attention than any of the others; was less--you'll -pardon me--offensive. I even thought he tried to keep them away." - -"As the lion drives the jackals. Avoid him, my dear. Well, I suppose -that a couple more days won't hurt. We are to stay a week longer, and if -Elinor asks you--which she won't--you _must_ refuse. Now let us go out -before they begin to suspect a conspiracy." - -"But first let me thank you. I have been so miserable, and you have -done me _so_ much good." - -Mrs. Jack gently patted the hand that caught her arm, an action totally -at variance with her answer. "Self-interest, I assure you. Elinor is -not the only sufferer. You have depleted the entire preserve. Not a man -has looked at me the last three days. There, there! You needn't -believe it if you don't want to." - -Could Mrs. Jack's frank eyes have pierced the immediate future, she -would have made her warning against Rhodes more specific. On Thursday -of that week Leslie drove his heavy team and bobs into Lone Tree for -supplies, and, what of the thawing trails, could not possibly be back -till all hours Saturday night. Not knowing this, Mrs. Jack made no -objection when, Saturday morning, Danvers drove over with Molyneux's -double cutter and carried off herself and the Newtons to visit a friend -west of the Assiniboin. - -"You'll be here till after supper," she said to Helen, leaving. "So I -won't say good-bye." - -But she miscalculated both the warmth of the friend's welcome and the -heavy sledding. When she returned, long after dark, she found Mrs. -Leslie reading a novel by her bedroom stove. In a loose wrapper, -crossed feet comfortably propped on the plated stove-rail, a plate of -red apples at her elbow, and the light comfortably adjusted on the table -behind her, she was the picture of comfort. "Having a jolly good time -all by myself," she explained. "Fred's not home yet, and Captain -Chapman went over to win a little from Ernest Poole at poker. Helen? -Just gone. She waited and waited and waited, but you were so late that -we both thought you had concluded to stay the night. Didn't you pass -her at the Forks--or hear the bells? That double string of Fred's can -be heard to heaven on a still night." - -"Oh, was that she? Hired man came for her, I suppose?" Mrs. Jack -indifferently inquired, as she laid off her furs. - -"No. Sinclair drove her with our ponies. What's the matter?" - -Eyes dark and dilated with fear, Mrs. Jack faced her. "Do you mean to -tell me--" Breaking hastily off, she ran through bed and living rooms, -almost upsetting Newton on her way to the outer door. "Mr. Danvers! Oh, -Mr. Danvers! Mr. Danvers! Mr.--Danvers!" she called. - -But the night returned only the clash of his bells. - -Sweeping back in, she faced Mrs. Leslie, flushed with the one righteous -emotion of her fast life. "You let her go out--alone--with that--" -Choking, she ran into her own room and slammed the door, leaving the -other two women staring. - -Edith Newton answered the lift of the other's eyebrows. "Another of -Maud's raves." - - - - - *XVII* - - *--AND ITS FINALE* - - -But for the bells and groan of runners, which drowned sound for them -even as it did for Danvers, Helen and Rhodes were near enough to have -heard Mrs. Jack's call. Interpreting the latter's warning morally, -Helen had accepted Rhodes's escort as the lesser of two evils, or, if -she had speculated on tentative attempts at flirtation, had not doubted -her own ability to snub them. - -A sudden frost, winter's last desperate clutch at the throat of spring, -had hardened the sun-rotted trails; and as the cutter sped swiftly over -the first mile, she chatted freely, without thought of danger. Of the -three male guests, Rhodes had, as aforeseen, pestered her least, so, -ignorant of the pitiless brutality masked by his reserve, she was -paralyzed--almost fainted--when his arm suddenly dropped from the -cutter-rail to her waist. - -Recovering, she spoke sharply, "Take it away!" - -Instead, he drew her tighter. She could not see his face; but as she -struck, madly, blindly, at its dim whiteness, his laugh, heartless, -cynical, came out of the dusk, "Kick, bite, scratch all you want, my -little beauty," he said, forcing his face against hers, "your struggles -are sweet as caresses." - -Yet, withal his boast, he found it difficult to hold her. Twice she -broke his grip and almost leaped from the sleigh; and as she fought his -face away, her hand suddenly touched the reins that were looped over his -arm. - -In the black confusion he was unable to specify just what happened -thereafter. He knew that, alarmed by the scuffling, the ponies had -burst into a gallop; but, though he felt her relax, he could not see her -throw all of her weight into a sudden jerk on the left rein. Ensued a -heaving, tumultuous moment. Pulled from the trail, the ponies plunged -into deep drift. The cutter bucked like a live thing, and as it dropped -from the high trail a runner cracked with a pistol report. -Simultaneously they were thrown out into deep, cold snow. - -They fell clear of each other, and Helen heard Rhodes swearing as he ran -to the ponies' heads. The sound spurred her to action. She could only -count on a minute, and, rising, she ran, stumbling, falling headlong -into drifts to rise and plunge on, in her heart the terror of the hunted -thing. Each second she expected to hear his pursuing foot. But he had -to tie the ponies to a prairie poplar, and by that time she had gained a -bluff two hundred yards away, and was crouched like a chased hare in its -heart. - -That poor covert would not have sufficed against a frontiersman. -Tracking by the fainter whiteness of broken snow, he would soon have -flushed the trembling game, but it was ample protection from Rhodes's -inefficiency. Alarmed when he saw that she was gone, he ran back and -forth, shouting, coupling her name with promises of good behavior. As -her line of flight had angled but slightly from the trail, she heard him -plainly. - -"My God! You'll freeze! Mrs. Carter! Oh, Mrs. Carter! Do come out! I -was only joking!" - -She did not require his assurance as to the freezing. Already her limbs -were numb, her teeth chattered so loudly she was afraid he would hear. -But she preferred the frost's mercy to his, and so lay, shivering, -until, in despair, he got the ponies back to the trail and drove rapidly -away. Then she came out and headed homeward like a bolting rabbit. -Twice she was scared back into the snow: once when Rhodes turned about -and dashed down and back the trail; again just before she picked -Leslie's voice from passing bells. He was merely talking to his horses, -but never before had his voice fallen so sweetly on pretty ears. - -As at some wan ghost, he stared at the dim, draggled figure that came up -to him out of the snows; indeed, half frozen and wholly frightened, she -was little more than the ghost of herself. "The cad!" he stormed, -hearing her story. "I'll punch his head to-morrow!" And he maintained -that rude intention up to the moment that he dropped her at her own -door. - -"Don't!" she called after him. "Elinor won't like it." But the caution -was for his own good, and she was not so very much cast down when he -persisted. - -"Then she can lump it!" he shouted back. - -The proverb gives the trampled worm rather more than due credit when one -remembers that a barrel-hoop can outturn the very fiercest worm, but it -should be remembered in Leslie's favor that he mutinied in the cause of -another. Having all of the obstinacy of his dulness, he went straighter -to his end because it was allied with that narrow, bull-dog vision which -excludes all but one object from the field of sight. Meeting Rhodes, -Chapman, and Newton, with lanterns, at the point where the sleigh had -capsized, he rushed the former and was living in the strict letter of -his intention when the others pulled him away. They could not, however, -dam his indignant speech. On that vast, dark stage, with the lanterns -shedding a golden aureole about Rhodes and his bleeding mouth, he gave -them the undiluted truth, as it is said to flow from the mouths of babes -and sucklings. - -Arrived home, moreover, he staggered his wife by his stubborn -opposition. "It is no use talking, Elinor," he said, closing a bitter -argument. "To-morrow I go to the bush for a load of wood, and if that -cad is here when I return I'll break a whip on his back." Then, -ignoring her bitten lips, clinched hands, the bitter fury that was to -produce such woful consequences, he went quietly off to bed. - -Of all this, however, Helen remained in ignorance until after the -denouement that came a few days later along with a scattering of new -snow. Those were days of misery for her--of remorseful brooding, -self-reproach, hot shame that set her at bitter introspection that she -might find and root out the germs of wickedness that had brought these -successive insults. As hundreds of good girls before her, as thousands -will after her, she wondered if she were really the possessor of some -unsuspected sensuousness. Comparisons, too, were forced upon her. -Revolting from the rough settler life, she had turned to the English set -only to find that their polished ease was but the veneer of their -degeneracy, analogous to the phosphorescence given off in the dark by a -poisoned fish, and equally indicative of decay. She could not fail to -contrast her husband's sterling worth with their moral and intellectual -leprosy. - -The nights were still more trying. She would sit, evenings, and stare -at the lamp as though it were the veritable flame of life, while her -spirit quested after the cause of things and the root of many enigmas. -Why, for instance, is it that pitilessness, ferocity, ruth, which were -good in the youth of the world, should cause such evil in its old age? -For what reason the cause of the lily willed also its blight? Why -conditions make fish of one woman, flesh of another, and fowl of a -third, and wherefore any one of them should be damned for doing what she -couldn't help in following the dictates of her nature? In fact, from -the duration of her reveries, she may have entertained all of the -hundred and odd questions with which the atom pelts the infinite, and, -judging from her dissatisfaction, she received the usual answer--Why? -It is nature's wont to deliver her lessons in parables, from which each -must extract his or her own meanings; and a momentous page was turned in -Helen's lesson the day that she rode over to Leslie's to verify a rumor -which Nels had brought from the post-office. - -As sleighing was practically over and wheeling not yet begun, she went -horseback. As aforesaid, a scattering of new snow covered the prairies, -and she rode through a bitter prospect. Everywhere yellow grass -tussocks or tall brown weeds thrust through the scant whiteness to wave -in the chill wind. Under the sky's enormous gray, scrub and bluff and -blackened drifts stood out, harsh studies in black and white. Nature -was in the blues, and all sentient things shared her dull humor. -Winging north, in V or harrow formations, the wild ducks quacked their -discontent. Peevish snipe cursed the weather as they dipped from slough -to slough. A lone coyote complained that the season transcended his -experience, then broke off his plaint to chase a rabbit, of whose red -death Helen was shuddering witness. - -The settlement was even less cheerful. Such houses as she passed rose -like dirty smudges from the frozen mud of their dooryards. Moreover, -the looks of the few settlers she met were not conducive of better -spirits. MacCloud, a bigoted Presbyterian of the old Scotch-Canadian -school, gave her a malignant grin in exchange for her nod. Three Shinn -boys, big louts, burst into a loud guffaw as their wagon rattled by her -at the forks of Leslie's trail. Their comment, "Guess she hain't -heard!" increased her apprehension. - -She could now see the house, smokeless, apparently lifeless, frowning -down from a snow-clad ridge. But when, a minute later, she knocked, -Leslie answered, and she entered. The living-room, with its -associations of gayety, was dank, cold, cheerless. Ash littered the -fireless stove; the floor was unswept; the air gave back her breath in a -steamy cloud. Through the bedroom door she saw drawers and boxes wide -open, their contents tossed and tumbled as though some one had rummaged -them for valuable contents. And amid these ruins of a home Leslie sat, -head bowed in his hands. - -"You poor man!" she cried. "You poor, poor man!" - -He turned up his face, and its sick misery reminded her of a worm -raising its mangled head from under a passing wheel as though questing a -reason for its sudden taking off. His words strengthened the -impression: "I couldn't seem to satisfy her, and she was angry because I -took your part against him. Of course she isn't so much to blame. I -did as well as I could, but I'm neither clever nor ornamental, like -Rhodes. But I tried to treat her well, didn't I? You shall judge." - -"You did--of course you did, poor man!" she sobbed. - -"Then why did she leave me?" - -Somehow his blind questioning raised the prairie tragedy in her mind. -The rabbit's death-scream was equally sincere in its protest against -inscrutable fate in the coyote's green eyes. Its innocence was -blameless as this. Yet--how could she answer problems as unsolvable as -her own? - -"I have been a fool," he went on; and his next words helped to lessen -the astonishment, though not the pain, which his calamity had brought -her. "A blind fool! When we used to drive out to Regis last summer it -was going on--I can see it now. They did their billing and cooing under -my very eyes. Yet they were not so clever, after all, were they? I -trusted her--with my honor, expecting her to protect it as I would have -defended her virtue. Was I at fault? If a man can't trust his wife, -what can he do? Surely not lock her up. What could I do?" - -Puzzled, she stood and looked down upon him. But under its delicate -complexities the feminine mind is ever practical, and her attention -quickly turned to his physical welfare. He must be taken away--weaned -from his sick brooding, blind questioning. "Have you eaten to-day?" she -asked. "Not for _three_ days! Go out and harness your ponies at once, -and come home with me to supper." Anticipating objection, she added, -"Really, you must, for I am too tired to ride back again." - -Her little fiction was hardly necessary, he found it so easy to let her -do his thinking. He obeyed as one in a trance; and not till they drove -away, leading her pony behind, did action dissipate his lethargy. Then -he began to display some signs of animation. - -It was a silent and uncomfortable drive. Instead of the usual lively -jingle, pole and harness rattled dully, the light snow hushed the merry -song of the wheels to a slushy dirge. The raw air, bleak sky, slaty -grays of the dull prospect were eminently oppressive. Nature had shed -her illusions and, fronting her cold materialism, there was no dodging -issues. Facts thrust themselves too rudely upon consciousness. Leslie -spoke but once, and the remark proved that the chill realities had set -him again at the riddle of life. - -"I shall sell out," he said, as the ponies swung in on Carter's trail. -"Go to South Africa. My brother is a mining superintendent on the -Rand." - -She sighed. "I can't go to South Africa." - -Rousing from his own trouble, he looked at her. "You don't need to. -You'll see. Carter will come home one of these days." And during the -few days that he stayed with her he extended such brotherly sympathy -that she felt sincerely sorry when, having placed the sale of his farm -and effects in the hands of Danvers, he followed his faithless wife out -of her life and this story. - - - - - *XVIII* - - *THE PERSISTENCE OF THE ESTABLISHED* - - -Save for a few dirty drifts in the shadows of the bluffs, the snow was -all gone when, one morning a week or so after Leslie's departure, Helen -went south under convoy of Jimmy Glaves to open school. The day was -beautiful. Once more the prairies wore the burned browns of autumn, but -to eyes that had grown to the vast snowscape during a half-year of -winter the huge monochrome rioted in color. In fact it had its values. -There a passing cloud threw a patch of black. Bowing to the soft -breeze, last year's grass sent sunlit waves chasing one another down to -the far horizon. Here and there a green stain on the edge of cropped -hay-sloughs bespoke the miracle of resurrection, eternal wonder of -spring, the young life bubbling forth from the decay and death of parent -plants. Also the prospect was checkered with the chocolate of ploughed -fields. On these slow ox-teams crawled, and the shouts of the drivers, -the snapping crack of long whips, alternated as they drove along with -the cheep of running gophers, the "pee-wee" of snipe, song of small -birds. Noise was luxury after the months of frozen silence. The warm, -damp air, the feel of balmy spring, the sunlight on the grasses were -delightfully relaxing. Helen gave herself up to it--permitted sensation -to rule and banish for the moment her tire and trouble. She chatted -quite happily with the trustee, who, however, seemed gloomy and -preoccupied. - -A philosopher coined a phrase--"the persistence of the established"--to -explain the survival of phenomena after the original cause lies dead in -the past. It admirably defines the trustee's mental condition, which -was a product of causes set up by Helen in these last months. Ignorant -of the change in her feeling towards her English friends, he was vividly -aware of the prejudice which her dealings with them had aroused in the -settlers. In the beginning he and Flynn had earned severe criticism by -giving her the school. Since the Leslie scandal he doubted their -ability to keep her in it. At meeting, "bees," on trail, her name was -being coupled with grins or gloomy reprobation according to the years -and character of the critics. The women had plucked her character clean -as a chicken, and were scattering their findings to the four winds. -Just now, of course, the heavy work of seeding sadly interfered with -these activities and diversions, but Jimmy looked for trouble in the -slack season. If, in the mean time, she could be weaned from her liking -for the English Ishmael, they might be able to weather the prejudice. -To which end he steered the conversation to the greenness, credulity, -and execrable agriculture of the remittance-people. - -"I kain't see," he said, among other things, "what a fine gal like you -kin see in 'em. They're dying stock, an' one o' these days the -fool-killer will come along an' brain the hull biling. Brain, did I -say? The Lord forgive me! Kedn't scratch up the makings of one outen -the hull bunch." - -Had she known his mind she might easily have laid his misgivings. -Instead, she tried to modify his bitter opinion. "They are certainly -inefficient as farmers. But as regards their credulity, don't you think -it is largely due to a higher standard of business honor? Now when a -Canadian trades horses he expects to be cheated, while they are only -looking for a fair exchange." - -Jimmy's face wrinkled in contemptuous disparagement. "Hain't that jes' -what I said? A man that expects to get his own outen a hoss-trade -kain't be killed too quick. It's tempting Providence to leave him -loose. As well expect a nigger to leave a fat rooster as a Canadian to -keep his hands off sech easy meat. 'Tain't human natur'. As for their -honor--" He sniffed. "Pity it didn't extend to their morals." - -"It is, indeed." - -Afterwards they had many a tilt on this same subject. Smoking in his -doorway of evenings, Jimmy would emit sarcasms from the midst of furious -clouds, while she, as much for fun as from natural feminine perversity, -took the opposite side. And neither knew the other's mind--until too -late. But placated by her low answer, he now let the subject rest. - -Three feet of green water was slipping over the river ice when they -forded Silver Creek, and they had to dodge odd logs, the vanguard of -Carter's drive. "Another week," the trustee remarked, "an' we couldn't -have crossed." - -He was right. That week a warm rain ran the last of the snows off -several thousand square miles of watershed, feeding the stream till it -waxed fat and kicked like the scriptural ox against the load Carter had -saddled upon it. Snarling viciously, it would whirl a timber across a -bend, then rush on with mad roar, leaving a mile of logs backed up -behind. But such triumph never endured. With axe, pevees, cant-hooks, -Bender and his men broke the jams; whereupon, as though peevish at its -failure, the river swept out over the level bottoms and stranded timbers -in backwaters among dense scrub. - -To see this, the first log-drive on Silver Creek, the children who lived -near the valley scuttled every day from school, and they would gaze, -wide-eyed, at Michigan Red riding a log that spun like a top under his -nimble feet, or watch the Cougar, shoulder-deep in snow-water, shoving -logs at some ticklish point. Then they would hang about the cook's -tent, while that functionary juggled with beans and bacon or made -lumberman's cake by the cubic yard. Also there were peeps into the -sleeping-tents, where men lay and snored in boots and wet red shirts, -just as they had come out of the river. Of all of which they would -prattle to Helen next day at school, reciting many tales, chief among -them the Homeric narrative of the cutting of a jam--in which she had a -special interest, and which proved, among other things, that Michigan -Red was again at his old tricks. - -It was Susie Flynn who brought this tale. Dipping down, one end of a -bridge timber had stuck at an acute angle into the river-bed. A second -timber swung broadside on against its end, then, in a trice, the logs -had backed up, grinding bark to pulp under their enormous pressure. -"Mr. Bender," Susie said, "he was for throwing a rope across from bank -to bank so's they ked cut it from above. But one wasn't handy, an' -while they was waiting a big red man comes up an' hands Mr. Carter the -dare. - -"'If you're scairt, gimme the axe an' I'll show you how we trim a jam in -Michigan.' - -"But Mr. Carter wouldn't give it. 'No,' he says, awful quiet, yet -sorter funny, for all the men laughed--'no. They'll need you to show 'em -again.' Then he walks out on the jam an' goes to chopping, with Mr. -Bender calling for him to come back an' not make a damn fool of -himself." - -The scene had so impressed the child that she reproduced every detail -for her pale audience of one--Carter astride of the key-log; his men, -bating their breath with the "huh" of his stroke; Bender's distress; the -cynical grin of Michigan Red. Once, she said, a floating chip deflected -the axe, and he swore, easily, naturally, turning a smile of annoyance -up to the bank. It drew no response from eyes that were glued to the -log, now quivering under tons of pressure. A huge baulk, it broke with -a thunderous report when cut a quarter through, and loosed a mile of -grinding death upon the chopper. - -Then came his progress through the welter. As the jam bore down-stream, -timbers would dip, somersault, and thrash down on a log that still -quivered under the spurn of his leap. Young trees raised on end and -swept like battering-rams along the log he rode. Yet, jumping from log -to log, he came up from death out of the turmoil in safety to the bank. - -"Brought his axe erlong, too!" Susan triumphantly finished. "An' you -should have jes' seen that red man--he looked that sick an' green -through his wishy-washy smiling. But Mr. Carter! Ain't he a brave one? -You must be awful proud of him, ain't you, Miss Helen?" - -What could she answer but "Yes," though the trembling admission covered -only a small portion of her psychology? Misery, fear, regret made up -the rest. The remainder of that day dragged wearily by to a distant -drone of lessons. She, who had tried to eject her husband from her -life, shuddered as she thought how nearly her wish had come to -accomplishment. Death's cold breath chilled resentment, expunged the -memory of her months of weary waiting. It would return, but in the mean -time she could think of nothing but his danger. Hurrying home, she -asked Glaves to saddle her a horse, saying that she would try to gallop -off a headache. - -Heartache would have been more correct; but she certainly galloped, rode -westward, then swung around north on a wide circle that brought her, at -dusk of the short spring day, out on a bald headland that sheered down -to the river. Beneath her lay the camp, with its cooking-fires -flickering like wind-blown roses athwart the velvet pall of dusk, and in -either direction from that effulgent bouquet a crimson garland of -sentinel fires laid its miles of length along the valley. - -Men moved about the nearer fires, appearing to her distant eyes as dim, -dark shapes. But what sight refused hearing supplied. She heard the -cook cursing his kettles with a volubility that would have brought shame -on the witches in Macbeth--the imprecations of some lumber-jack at war -with a threatened jam. Above all rose the voice of a violin, quivering -its infinite travail, expressing the throbbing pain of the world; then, -from far up the valley, a lonely tenor floated down the night. - - "He went to cut a key-log an' the jam he went below, - He was the damnedest man that ever I did know." - - -Some lumberman was relieving his watch by chanting the deeds of a hero -of the camps, and as, like a dove of night, the voice floated high over -the river's growl through a score of verses, it helped to drive home -upon Helen a sense of the imminent jeopardy Carter had passed through -that day. While her beast pawed its impatience, she sat for an hour -trying to pick his voice from the hum of the camp. It was easy to -distinguish Bender's. His bass growl formed the substratum of sound. -She caught, once, the Cougar's strident tones. Then, just as she was -beginning to despair, a command, stern and clear, rose from the void. - -"Lay on there with that pevee! Quick! or you'll have 'em piled to -heaven! Here!--Bender, Cougar!--lend a hand! this fellow's letting them -jam on him!" - -She started as under a lash. All that day she had lived in a whirl of -feeling, and, just as a resolvent precipitates a chemical mixture, the -stern voice reduced her feeling to thought. Unfortunately, the tone was -not in harmony with her soft misery. If it had been--well, it was not. -Rather it recalled his contempt under the moonlight, her own solitary -shame. Whirling her bronco, she cut him over the flank and galloped, at -imminent risk of her neck, over the dark prairies in vain attempt to -escape the galling recurrence of injured pride, the stings of -disappointment. - -"He doesn't care for me! He doesn't care for me!" It rang in her -brain. Then, when she was able to think, she added, in obedience to the -sex instinct which will not admit Love's mortality, "He never did, -otherwise he couldn't have left me!" Her conclusion, delivered that -night into a wet pillow, revealed the secret hope at the root of her -disappointment. "I won't ride that way again." - -But she did, and her changed purpose is best explained by a conversation -between Carter and Bender as they stood drying themselves at the cook's -fire after averting the threatened jam. - -Carter began: "I reckon you can get along well enough without me. Of -course I'd have liked to seen the drive down to the Assiniboin, but in -another week the frost will be out enough to start prairie grading. I'll -have to go. Let me see.... One week more on the creek, two on the -Assiniboin--three weeks will put the last timber into Brandon. In less -than a month you'll join me at the Prairie Portage." - -Turning to bring another area of soaked clothing next to the fire, his -face came under strong light. These seven months of thought and -calculation had left their mark upon it--thinned and refined its lines, -tooled the features into an almost intellectual cast. His mouth, -perhaps, evidenced the greatest change, showing less humor, because, -perhaps, self-repression and the habit of command had drawn the lips in -tighter lines. Deeper set, his eyes seemed darker, while a straight -look into their depths revealed an underlying sadness. Sternness and -sadness, indeed, governed the face, without, however, banishing a -certain grave courtesy that found expression in pleasant thanks when, -presently, the cook brought them a steaming jug of coffee. Lastly, -determination stamped it so positively that only its lively intelligence -saved it from obstinacy. One glance explained Bender's answer to Jenny: -"He's stiffer'n all hell!"--his attitude to Helen. In him will -dominated the emotions. Summed, the face, with its power, dogged -resolution, imperturbable confidence, mirrored his past struggles, gave -earnest for his future battles. - -A hint of these last inhered in a remark that Bender slid in between two -gulps of coffee. "They're saying as the C.P. will never let you cross -their tracks?" - -Carter smiled. "Yes? Who's saying it?" - -"Oh, everybody. An' the Winnipeg paper said yesterday as 'Old -Brass-Bowels'"--he gave the traffic manager his sobriquet--"will enjoin -you an' carry the case through the Dominion courts to the British privy -council. The newspaper sharp allows that would take about two years, -during which the monopoly would either buy out or bust your crowd by -building a competing line." - -This time Carter laughed heartily, the confident laugh of one sure of -himself. "So that's what the paper said? Well, well, well! That -scribe person must be something of a psychic. What's that? Oh, a -fellow who tells you a whole lot of things he don't know himself. Now, -listen." (In view of what occurred six months later, his words are -worth remembering.) - -"Courts or no courts, privy council to the contrary, we'll run trains -across 'Brass-Bowel's' tracks before next freeze-up." - -"Hope you do," Bender grinned. "But the old man ain't so very slow." - -They talked more of construction--tools, supplies, engineering -difficulties, the hundred problems inherent in railroad-building. -Midnight still found them by the fire, that twinkled, a lone red star, -under the enormous vault of night. - -But, though interesting and important, in that the success of the -enterprise involved the economic freedom of a province, the -conversation--with one exception--is not germane to this story, which -goes on from the moment that, two days later, a Pengelly boy carried the -news of Carter's departure to Helen at school. - -The exception was delivered by the mouth of Bender, as he rose, -stretching with a mighty yawn, to go to his tent. "Of course it's none -of my damn business, but do you allow to call at the school as you go -down to-morrow?" - -Carter's brows drew into swift lines, but resentment faded before the -big fellow's concern. "I didn't reckon to," he said, gently; yet added -the hint, "--since you're so pressing." - -But Bender would not down. "Oh, shore!" he pleaded. "Shore! shore!" - -Carter looked his impatience, yet yielded another point to the other's -distress. "If Mrs. Carter wished to see me, I allow she'd send." - -"Then she never will! she never will!" Bender cried, hitting the crux of -their problem. "For she's jes' as proud as you." - -With that he plunged into the environing darkness, leaving Carter still -at the fire. From its glow his face presently raised to the valley's -rim, dim and ghostly under a new moon, ridged with shadowy trees. It -was only six miles to Glaves's place, a hop, skip, and jump in that -country of distances. For some minutes he stood like a stag on gaze; -then, with a slow shake of the head, he followed Bender. - - -"An' he ain't coming back till winter," the small boy informed Helen. -"He'll be that busy with his railroading." - -After two days of embittered brooding, Helen had come to consider -herself as being in the self-same mood that had ruled her the January -morning when Mrs. Leslie broke in on her months of loneliness. But this -startling news explained certain contradictions in her psychology--for -instance, her startings and flushings whenever her north window had -shown a moving dot on the valley trail these last two days. Moreover, -her pallor was hardly consistent with the assertion, thrice repeated -within the hour, that even if he did come she would never, never, -_never_ forgive him _now_! Not that she conceded said contradictions. -On the contrary, she put up a gorgeous bluff with herself, affected -indifference, and--borrowed Jimmy's pony that evening and rode down to -the ford. - -Bender had built a rough bridge to serve traffic till the drive should -clear the ford. Reining in at the nearer end, Helen looked down on the -pool, the famous pool wherein her betrothal had received baptism by -total immersion--at least she looked on the place where the pool had -been, for shallows and sand-bar were merged in one swirl of yellow -water. But the clay bank with its bordering willows was still there, -and shone ruddily under the westering sun just as on that memorable -evening. Here, on the straight reach, the logs floated under care of an -occasional patrol. A rough fellow in blue jeans and red jerkin gave her -a curious stare as he passed, whereafter there was no witness to her wet -eyes, her rain of tears, convulsive sobbing, the break-up of her -indifference--that is, none but her pony. Reaching curiously around, -the beast investigated the grief huddled upon his neck with soft muzzle, -rubbing and sniffing "cheer up," and she had just straightened to return -his mute sympathy when a voice broke in on the bitter and sweet of her -reverie. - -"Well met, fair lady!" - -Turning, startled, she came face to face with Molyneux. The heavy mud -of the bottoms had silenced his wheels, and now he sat smiling at the -sudden fires that dried up and hid her tears. "Not there yet," he -answered her question as to his return home. "Do you imagine I could go -by without calling? The school was closed, but a kid--a Flynn, by his -upper lip--told me that you had ridden this way; and as it was Friday -evening I judged you were going north to Leslie's, and so drove like -Jehu on the trail of Ahab. Better turn your horse loose and get in with -me. He'll go home all right. Why not?" - -Again she shook her head. "Didn't Mr. Danvers write you--?" -Remembering that a letter would have crossed him on the Atlantic, she -stopped. - -"What's the matter? No one dead? Worse?" He laughed in her serious -face when she had told. "Oh, well, that's not so bad. After all, -Leslie was an awful chump. If a man isn't strong enough to hold a -woman's love he shouldn't expect to keep her." - -He was yet, of course, in ignorance of all that had transpired in his -absence--the house-party and the complete revulsion it had wrought in -Helen's feelings. He knew nothing of her shame, vivid remorse, passion -of thankfulness for her escape. To him she was still the woman, -desperate in her loneliness, who had challenged his love two short -months ago. Withal, what possessed him to afford that glimpse of his -old nature? It coupled him instantly in her mind with her late -unpleasant experience. - -Not understanding her silence, he ran gayly on: "I can now testify to -the truth of the saying, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.' How is -it with you? Have I lost or gained?" - -Laughing nervously, she answered: "Neither. We are still the same good -friends." - -He shook his head, frowning. "Not enough. I want love--must, _will_ -have it." - -Any lingering misapprehension of the state of her feelings which she may -have entertained now instantly vanished. How she regretted the weakness -which entitled him to speak thus! She knew now. Never, under any -conditions, could she have married him, but, warned by dearly boughten -experience, she dared not so inform him. Frightened, she fenced and -parried, calling to her aid those shifts for men's fooling that -centuries of helplessness have bred in woman's bone. - -"Well, well!" she laughed. "I thought you more gallant. I on -horseback, you in a buggy. Love at such long distance! I wouldn't have -believed it of you!" - -It was a bad lead, drawing him on instead of away. "That is easily -remedied. Get in with me--or, I'll tie up to that poplar." - -She checked his eagerness with a quick invention. "No, no! I was only -joking. No, I say! There's a man, a river-driver, just behind that -bluff." How she wished there were! Praying that some one might come -and so afford her safe escape, she switched the conversation to his -journey, and when that subject wore out enthused over the sunset. How -beautiful was the sky--the shadows that fell like a pall over the -bottoms--the lights slow crawling up the headlands! - -Preferring her delicate coloring to the blushes of the west, he feasted -on her profile, delicately outlined against a golden cloud, until she -turned. Then he brought her back to the point. "Well--have you -forgotten?" - -"What?" She knew too well, but the question killed a moment. - -"The answer you promised me?" - -She would dearly have loved to give it, to cry aloud: "I love! I love! -I love--him, not you!" Ay, she would have flaunted it in all the proud -cruelty of love--had she dared. Instead, she answered: "You forget! I -am a married woman." - -"No, I don't," he urged. "That is easily settled. Three months' -residence across the line, in Dakota, and you are free of him." - -"But not of myself." - -"What do you mean?" - -Alarmed by the sudden suffusion of venous blood on his face and neck, -the reddish glow of his eye, she forged hasty excuses. "You see, I -never thought of it--in that way. I must have time to get used to the -idea. Won't you give me a week?" Her winning smile conquered. He had -stepped his ponies alongside, and, snatching her hand, he covered it -with kisses. - -"By God, Helen, you must say yes! I'm mad--mad with love of you. If -you refuse--" - -"Hush!" She snatched away her hand as a man came in sight from behind a -bluff, coming up-stream. "It is Mr. Bender!" she exclaimed--so -thankfully. Then, mindful of her part, she added: "What a nuisance! I -wonder if he--saw you?" - -"Oh, he'll go by." - -"No, no! Leave me the shreds of my character. You must go. _Must!_ I -said, sir." - -"Very well. But remember--one week." Nodding significantly, he drove -off, leaving her struggling with mixed feelings of relief and -apprehension. She wondered if Bender had seen Molyneux kiss her hand. - -Though in a few minutes of shy conversation Bender showed no knowledge -of the cause that had set her to rubbing the back of her hand against -her skirt, it nevertheless formed the subject of a rough scrawl that -Baldy, the tote-trail teamster, delivered to Jenny in Lone Tree two days -later. "You said I was to tell if I saw or heard anything more. Well, -he is back, and--" Followed the kisses, and the scrawl ended, "If you -kin do anything like you thought you ked, do it quick, else I shall have -to tell the boss and give him a chance to look after his own." - -Jenny did "do it quick," and thereby initiated a sequence of cause and -event that was to entirely change the complexion of a dozen lives. An -extract from her letter to Helen explains itself: "'Twas on the tip of -my tongue to tell it to you every time he druv you home last winter, but -'twas so much easier for me to have you all believing as it was the man -that went back to England. But 'twasn't, Miss Helen; 'twas him--Capen -Molyneux." - -Poor Jenny! She alone knew the magnitude of the man's offence against -her weak innocence, but, small stoic, she had hugged the knowledge to -her soul while waiting in dull patience for the punishment she never -doubted. Immunity would have challenged the existence of the God on -whom, despite small heresies of speech, she devoutly leaned. She read -his sentence in that most tremendous curse of the oppressor, the One -Hundredth and Ninth Psalm, the bitter cry of David: "For he hath -rewarded me evil ... hatred for my love. When he shall be judged, let -him be condemned; and his prayer become sin.... Let his children be -continually vagabonds, seek their bread in desolate places. Let the -extortioner catch all that he hath; the stranger despoil his labor. Let -there be none to extend mercy to him.... Let his posterity be cut off -and his generation blotted out ... that He may cut off the memory of -them from the earth." Ay, she had believed that it would come to pass -in some way--by lightning-flash, sudden sickness, a weary death. But -she had never imagined herself as the instrument which this letter was -to make her. What the confession cost her! Tears, shameful agonizings! -Small wonder that, in her trembling confusion, she mis-shuffled notes -and slid Helen's into Bender's envelope. - - - - - *XIX* - - *THE WAGES OF SIN* - - -On the afternoon following Baldy's delivery of the shuffled notes, the -May sun diffused a tempered warmth upon Molyneux's veranda, thereby -intensifying certain comfortable reflections which accompanied his -after-dinner pipe. He had material cause of satisfaction. To begin, his -father's death placed him in possession of a sum which--a mere pittance -in England--loomed large as a fortune in the thrifty settlements. Next, -Messrs. Coxhead & Boxhead, exploiters of the Younger Son, and his London -solicitors, had forwarded through that morning's mail indentures of -apprenticeship to colonial farming of three more innocents at one -thousand dollars a head per annum. This more than made up for the -defection of Danvers, who, having learned how little there was to be -learned in the business, was adventuring farming for himself. It also -permitted the retention of the bucolic Englishman and wife, who -respectively managed Molyneux's farm and house. - -With their service assured, the life was more than tolerable, infinitely -superior to that which he would have led at home. There he would have -been condemned to the celibate lot of the younger son--to be a "filler" -at dinners and dances, useful as the waiters, ineligible and innocuous -to the plainest of his girl partners as an Eastern eunuch; or, accepting -the alternative, trade, vulgar trade, his pampered wits would have come -into competition with abilities that had been whetted to a fine edge -through centuries on time's hard stone. Like a leaden plummet, he would -have plunged through the social strata to his natural place in the -scheme of things. Here, however, he was of some importance, a magnate on -means that would hardly have kept up his clothes and clubs at home. A -landed proprietor, moreover, he escaped the stigma of trade, and the -resultant prejudice, should he ever return to live in England. - -Then the life glowed with the colors of romance. His farm occurred on -the extreme western edge of that vast forest which blackens the Atlantic -seaboard, and so marches west and north over a thousand rugged miles to -the limit of trees on the verge of the Barren Lands. Within gunshot the -old ferocious struggle for life continued as of yore. Through timbered -glades the wolf pursued and made his kill; echo answered the clash of -horns as big elk fought for a doe; over lonely woodland lakes, black -with water-fowl, the hoo-haugh crane spread ten feet of snowy pinion; -across dark waters the loon's weird lament replied to the owl's midnight -questioning. In winter the moose came down from their yards to feed at -his prairie hay-stacks; any night he could come out on the veranda and -thrill to a long howl or the scream of a lynx. - -Opening before him now, the view was pleasantly beautiful. His house, a -comfortable frame building, and big barn and corrals, all sat within the -embrace of a half-moon that prairie-fires had bitten out from the heart -of a poplar bluff. Southward his tilled fields ran like strips of brown -carpet over the green earth rolls. Beyond them spread the Park Lands, -with his cattle feeding knee-deep in the rank pasture between clump -poplar. Further still, his horses scented the wind from the crest of a -knoll, forming a dull blotch against the soft blue sky. These were -growing into money while he smoked, and what of free grazing, free hay, -and labor that reversed the natural order of things and paid for the -privilege of working, he could see himself comfortably wealthy in not -too many seasons. He would still be young enough for a run through -Maiden Lane, London's Mecca for the stage and _demi-mondaine_. However, -he put that thought behind him as being inconsistent with contemplation -of the last thing necessary for perfect happiness--a pretty wife. -Through the haze of sunlit tobacco reek, he saw himself in possession of -even that golden asset, and thereafter his reflections took the exact -color of those of the rich man before death came in the night: "Soul, -soul! Thou hast much goods laid up in store! Eat, drink, take thine -ease, and be merry!" - -"It is really time that I settled," he murmured. "Thirty-four, my next -birthday. By Jove! six more years and I shall be forty!" - -The thought deflected his meditation into channels highly becoming to a -person of the age he was contemplating, and from virtuous altitudes he -looked back with something of the reproving tolerance that kindly age -accords to youthful indiscretion. He maintained the -"you-were-a-sad-dog" point of view till a sudden thought stung his -virtuous complacency through to the quick. "Oh, well"--he ousted -reproach with exculpatory murmur--"if the girl had only let me, I would -have got her away from here and have done something handsome for her -afterwards. But it was just as well--seeing that it passed off so -quietly. I wonder how she managed it? Nobody seems to know." Then, -ignoring the fact that every seeding brings its harvest, not knowing -that the measure of that cruel sowing was even then coming home to him -on a fast trot, he smothered conviction under the trite reflection, "A -fellow must sow his wild oats." - -Still the thought had marred his reverie, and, tapping his pipe on the -chair-rung, he rose. He intended a visit to the barn, where his man was -dipping seed wheat in bluestone solution to kill the smut; but just then -a wagon, which had been rattling along the Lone Tree trail, turned into -his private lane. - -"It is Glaves," he muttered. "And his wife. What can they want? Must -have a message--from her; otherwise they would never come here." - -His thought did not malign the trustee, who had positively refused the -commission till assured that its performance would sever Helen's -relations with his natural foes. Yet he did not like it, and though -retribution might have presented herself in more tragic guise, she could -not have assumed a more forbidding face than that which he now turned -down to Molyneux. - -Than they two there have been no more violent contrast. Beak-nosed, -hollow-eyed, the hoar of fifty winters environed the trustee's face, -which wind and weather had warped, seamed, and wrinkled into the -semblance of a scorched hide. He was true to the frontier type; and -beside his bronzed ruggedness, the Englishman, though much the larger -man, seemed, with his soft hands, smooth skin, and polished manner, to -be small and effeminate. - -As might be expected, the trustee refused Molyneux's invitation to put -in and feed. "No; me an' the wife is going up to see her brother, north -of Assissippii, an' we have thirty miles to make afore sundown." - -He did, however, return curt answers to a few questions, though it would -be a mistake to set his scant conversational efforts to the account of -politeness. Rather they were the meed of malignance, for, while -talking, he secretly exulted over the thought of Molyneux's coming -disappointment. They would be gone a week, he said. The mails? Mrs. -Carter would attend to sech letters as straggled in. She'd be there -alone? Yes. Lonesome? Mebbe, but she was that well-plucked she'd -laughed at the idea of spending her nights at Flynn's. A fine girl, -sirree! Having accorded five minutes to Helen's perfections, the -trustee drove off, but turned, as he rattled out of the yard, and nudged -his wife, grinning, to look at Molyneux. - -Stark and still as one of his own veranda-posts, the man stood and -stared down at Jenny's pitiful letter. Across the top Helen had written, -"This explains itself," and that scrap of writing represented three -letters now torn up and consigned to the flames. The first antedated -her receipt of Jenny's letter, and had run: "I want you to believe me -innocent of coquetry, and you must pardon me if I have, by speech or -action, seemed to sanction the hope you expressed the other day. I now -perceive that it was my desperate loneliness that caused me to lean so -heavily upon your friendship. I might have told you this personally but -for certain experiences which have made me timid." There was -more--regret, pleasant hope that the future might bring with it friendly -relations, wishes for his happiness. This letter she had withdrawn from -the mail to burn, along with one that was full of reproach, and a third -that sizzled with indignation. - -Suffused with dark, venous blood, Molyneux faced discovered sin. If -ever, this was the accepted time for his attempts at reconstruction to -bring forth fruit. He had pictured himself remorseful, but now that the -wage of sin was demanded, he flinched like a selfish child, reneged in -the game he had played with the gods. It was not in him to play a -losing hand to the logical end. Instead of remorse, anger possessed him, -for, tearing the letter, he cried in a gust of passion: - -"She sha'n't throw me a second time! By God, she sha'n't!" - -Needs not to follow his turbulent thought as he hurried out to the -barn--his flushes, the paroxysms that set his face in the colors of -apoplexy. Sufficient that flooding passion swept clean the -superstructure of false morality, sophistical idealism, that he had -erected on the rotten foundation of his vicious heredity. A minute of -action explains a volume of psychology. Hitching his ponies, he drove -madly southward, one idea standing clearly out in his whirl of -thought--she would be alone that night. - - -Just about the time that Molyneux swung out on the Lone Tree trail, -Helen arrived home from school with the eldest Flynn boy, who had -volunteered to help her with the chores, her undertaking of which had -made possible Mrs. Glaves's rare holiday. Under distress of their -bursting udders, the cows had come in of their own accord from the fat, -rank pastures, and now called for easement, with low, persistent -"mooing," while she changed her dress. When she finally came out, with -sleeves rolled above elbows that had regained their plump whiteness, -they even fought for precedence, horning each other aside until the -bell-cow made good her prerogative as leader; then frothing streams soon -drew tinkling music from her pail. For his part, the boy fed pigs and -calves, carried in the milk, then departed, leaving her to skim and -strain, and wash pans and pails, itself no light task in view of Mrs. -Glaves's difficult standards of cleanliness. That done and her supper -eaten, she placed a lamp on the table and sat down to think over the -events of the day. - -A little fatigued, she leaned a smooth cheek on her hand, staring at the -lamp, whose golden light toned while it revealed the changes these -distressful months had wrought in her appearance. Her eyes were weary, -her face tired; but if she was paler than of yore, the pallor was -becoming, in that it was altogether a mental product and accorded well -with her plump, well-nourished body. Her mouth, if wofully pouted in -agreement with her sad thought, was scarlet and pretty as ever. In every -way she was good as new. - -At first she had found it extremely difficult to realize the full -meaning of the letter which the Cougar had brought in from the camp -early that morning. For Bender would trust it in no other hand; whereby -he discovered not only his wisdom, but also an unexpected fund of tact -in his rough messenger. Anticipating some display of emotion, the -Cougar discharged his office in the privacy of Helen's own room; and if -her red eyes afterwards excited Jimmy Glaves's insatiable curiosity, -only the Cougar witnessed her breakdown--sorrowful tremblings, blushes, -tearful anger. Not that she had doubted the girl's word. Only it had -seemed monstrous, incredible, impossible, until, through the day, jots -and tittles of evidence had filtered out of the past. She had connected -Jenny's gloomings on the occasions that Molyneux drove her (Helen) home -with his refusals to enter and warm himself after their cold drives. -Even from the far days of the child's trouble, small significances had -come to piece out the solid proof. So now nothing was left for her but -bitter self-communion. - -These days it did seem as though the fates were bent on squeezing the -last acrid drop into her cup; for to the consciousness of error was now -added knowledge of the utter worthlessness of her tempter. She burned -as she recalled their solitary rides; writhed slim fingers in a passion -of thankfulness as she thought of her several escapes; was taxing -herself for her folly when a sudden furious baying outside brought her, -startled, to her feet. - -It was merely the house-dog exchanging defiances with a lone coyote; -but--after she had satisfied herself of the fact--it yet brought home -upon her a vivid sense of her lonely position. Sorry now that she had -not gone home with the Flynn boy, she glanced nervously about the room, -which, if small, was yet large enough to own shadowy corners. On top of -the pigeon-holed mailing-desk, moreover, a few books were piled in such -a way as to cast a shadow, the silhouette of a man's profile, upon the -wall. Lean, hard, indescribably cruel, its thin lips split in a -merciless grin as she moved the lamp, then suddenly lengthened into the -semblance of a hand and pointing finger. Then she laughed, nervously, -yet laughed because it indicated one of the hundred summonses, writs of -execution, and findings in judgment that were pasted up on the walls. - -"By these summons," Victoria Regina called upon her subject, James -Glaves, to pay the moneys and taxed costs herein set forth under pain of -confiscation of his goods and chattels. Usually recording debt and -disaster, the instruments certified, in Jimmy's case, to numerous -victories over implement trusts, cordage monopolies, local or foreign -Shylocks. "Execution proof," in that his wife owned their real property -in her own right, he could sit and smoke at home, the cynosure of the -country-side, in seasons when the sheriff travelled with the thresher -and took in all the grain. To each document he could append a story, -the memory of such a one having caused Helen's laugh. - -Indicating this particular specimen with his pipe-stem one evening, he -had remarked: "Yon jest tickled the jedge to death. 'Mr. Glaves,' he -says, when he handed it down, 'they've beat you on the jedgment, now -it's up to you to fool 'em on the execution.' An' you bet I did." - -Reassured, Helen returned to her musings, only to start up, a minute -later, with a nervous glance over her shoulder at the window. Is there -anything in thought transference? At that moment Molyneux was rattling -down into the dark valley, and is it possible that his heated imaginings -bridged the miles and impressed themselves upon her nervous mental -surfaces? Or was it merely a coincidence of thought that caused her to -see his face pressed against the black pane. Be this as it may, she -could not regain her composure. Taking the lamp, she locked herself in -her bedroom; then she sought that last refuge of frightened femininity, -the invulnerable shield of the bedclothes. - - - - - *XX* - - *--IS DEATH* - - -Though Silver Creek still ran fat and full, its sources were now nearly -drained of flood-waters; any day might see it suddenly shrink to its -usual summer trickle. Anticipating the event, Bender went miles -down-stream that morning to superintend the building of the first dam, -and so did not see the Cougar till that worthy came into camp at night -from his own place at the tail of the drive. - -This, the hour for changing shifts, was the liveliest of camp life--the -social hour, one might term it, replete with a certain rough comfort. -With them, from up and down river, the reliefs poured in, a stream of -red shirts, drowning with oaths, song, and laughter the rattle of -tin-ware in the cook-tent. Spread over fifteen miles of river, the -arrival was equally irregular, and those who had already eaten were -grouped about a huge camp-fire, the red glow of which enriched weathered -skins and softened the corrugations of iron faces. After the cold and -wet of the day, its warmth spelled luxury in capitals--luxury such as no -millionaire may command from his palatial clubs, for pleasure may only -be measured in degrees of health with accompanying intensity of -sensation. As they moved and turned like huge red capons on an -old-style spit, bringing fresh areas of soaked clothing under the blaze, -they smoked and revamped the day's haps, its dips, jams, duckings, while -the river--the river that yielded their hard bread in exchange for -annual toll of a life or two--rebuked with angry growl their jokes and -jestings. - -A candle in Bender's tent showed the giant squatted upon his blankets, -chin on hands, big torso hunched between knees and elbows. A night and -day of heavy brooding had sunk his eyes; despair had cross-ploughed and -deepened the furrows across his blue, scarred face. The attitude bespoke -deepest dejection, and his look, when the Cougar entered, caused the -latter's weird fierceness to flux in vast sympathy. - -"Well?" Bender inquired. - -The Cougar pulled a paper out of his shirt-bosom. "Here's your letter -that she got by mistake." - -It was only a scrap to say that she would do her best--she had done it, -too, poor girl!--that and an admonition to be careful in drying his -clothes at nights. Usually the warning would have dissolved Bender's -grimness, but it caused no relaxation of his gravity. - -"How did she take it?" - -"Hard. Cried an' said as 'twas more'n she deserved at the little gal's -hands. Blamed herself--dreadful cut up. Seems, too, as 'twasn't -necessary, as she'd already mailed Mr. Man his walking-papers." - -"Too late--now. It's done." - -The Cougar looked awkwardly down upon him. Pity had been foreign to -their rough comradeship; it was, indeed, nearest of kin to shame; the -words of sympathy choked in his throat. "Come, come!" he presently -growled. "Chipper up! 'Tain't any worse than it was." - -A convulsion seized and shook the big body. "You don't know, Cougar. -You don't know what it is--" He stopped, aghast at the sudden appalling -change in the other. He had straightened from his crouch, and his eyes -flared like blue, alcohol flames in his livid face. As at the touch of a -secret spring, the man's fierce taciturnity raised, exposing the -tortured soul behind. - -"I--don't?" The whisper issued like a dry wind from drawn lips. -"Me?--that saw my wife an' baby--" Though frontiersmen tell, shivering, -of the horror he mentioned, no pen has been found callous enough to set -it forth on paper. "God, man!" His arms snapped outward and his head -fell forward in the attitude of the crucifixion. - -"Cougar!" Bender grasped his shoulder. "Cougar! Cougar, man! I'd -forgotten." - -But as one in a trance the man went on: "It's always with me--through -these years--day an' night. I'd have killed myself--long ago--on'y -whenever I'd think of that, she'd come--sweet an' smiling--with a shake -of her pretty head. She wouldn't let me do it." The thought of her -smile seemed to calm him, and he continued, more quietly: "I never could -make out why 'twas done to her. A sky-pilot tol' me onct as 'twas the -will o' God, but I shocked him clean out of his boots. - -"'I'll know on the Jedgment Day, will I?' I asks him. 'Shorely,' he -answers, pat. 'An' I'll be close in to the great white throne you was -talking about?' He nods. 'Then do you know what I'll do?' I asks him -again. 'If I find out as how that God o' yourn ordered that done to my -little gal, I'll stick a knife into Him an' turn it round.' - -"At that he turned green an' tried to saddle the dirty business onto the -devil. But, Lordy, he didn't know. She does, though, else she wouldn't -come smiling. She knows; so I've allus reckoned as if she could bear -her pain I can worry through to the end. There! there! I'm all right -again. You didn't go to do it. An', after all, I don't know but that -you are right. For while my gal's at peace, yourn has to live out her -pain. It's puzzling--all of it. Now there's _him_. Where does he come -in? What about him?" - -"What about him?" Bender's bulk seemed to swell in the dim light to -huge, amorphous proportions. "That's simple. He's got to marry her." - -What the conclusion had cost him!--the suffering, self-sacrifice. To -the sophisticated, both sacrifice and conclusion may seem absurd, -provoking the question as to just how wrong may be righted by the -marriage of a clean girl with an impure man; yet it was strictly in -accord with backwoods philosophy. As yet the scepticism of modernity -had not infected the plains, nor had the leprosy of free thought rotted -their creeds and institutions. To Bender's simplicity, marriage -appealed as the one cure for such ills as Jenny's, while both he and the -Cougar had seen the dose administered with aid of a Colt's forty-five. -So, absurd or not, the conclusion earned the latter's instant approval. - -There was something pathetic, too, in the serious way in which, after -discussing ways and means, they spoke of Jenny's future. "She'll be a -lady," the Cougar commented. "Too big to look at you an' me." - -Bender's nod incarnated self-effacement, but he bristled when the Cougar -suggested that Molyneux might not treat her rightly, and his scowl -augured a quick widowhood in such premises. "We'll go up for him -to-morrow." - -"An' after it's all over?" - -"Oregon for you an' me--the camps an' the big timber." - -The big timber! The Cougar's bleak face lit up with sudden warmth. -Giant pines of Oregon woods; rose-brown shade of cathedral redwoods; the -roaring unrest of lacy cataracts; peace of great rivers that float the -rafts and drives from snow-capped Rockies down to the blue Pacific; -these, and the screaming saw-mills that spew their product over the -meridians, the pomp of that great piracy; the sights, sounds, resinous -odors that the Cougar would never experience again were vividly -projected into his consciousness. - -"Man!" He drew a deep breath. "It can't come too quick for me. I'm -sick of these plains, where a man throws a shadow clean to the horizon. -I'm hungry for the loom of the mountains." After a pause, he added, -"Coming back to yourself--have you eaten to-day?" - -The language he accorded to Bender's negative would shake the type from -a respectable printer's fingers, yet, in essence, was exactly equivalent -to the "You poor dear!" of an anxious wife or mother. Striding off, he -quickly returned with coffee and food, which Bender was ordered to eat -under pain of instant loss of his liver, lights, and sundry other useful -organs. Then, being besotted in his belief in action as a remedy for -mental disorders, he suggested a visit to the turn above the bridge -where the logs had jammed twice that afternoon. - -Another day would put the last log under the bridge and see the -temporary structure dismantled and afloat; but though only the tail of -the drive remained above, the jams had backed it up for a couple of -miles, so that the logs now filled the river from bank to bank. They -floated silently, or nearly so, for the soft thud of collisions, mutter -of grinding bark, merged with the low roar of the stream. But a -brilliant northern moon lit the serried array; when the men crossed they -could pick the yellow sawed ends from the black of the mass. - -Under urge of the same thought, they paused on the other side and looked -back along the northern trail. With the exception of the cook, whose -pots proclaimed his labors with shrill tintinnabulation, the camp now -slept, its big watch-fire burning red and low. Beneath that bright moon -scrub, bluff, scour, ravine, and headland stood out, lacking only the -colors of day, and they could see the trail's twin ruts writhing like -black snakes across the ashen bottoms into the gorge by which it gained -the prairies. - -The Cougar's quick eye first discerned a moving blot, but Bender gave it -identity. "That's shore Molyneux's rig. He'd a loose spoke when he -went by t'other day. Hear it rattle." - -It was clear and sharp as the clatter of a boy's stick along a wooden -paling, and the Cougar whispered: "It's sure him. Where kin he be -going? Do you reckon--" - -The same thought was in Bender's mind. "An' she there alone. No one -ever starts out for Lone Tree this time o' night." After a grim pause, -he added, "But that's where he's going." - -A strident chuckle told that the Cougar had caught his meaning. "That's -right. Saved us trouble, hain't he? Kind of him. Jes' step into the -shadow till he's fairly on the bridge." - -If they had remained in the moonlight he would never have seen them. -Dusk had brought no surcease of his mad thought; rather its peace -stimulated his excitement by shutting him out from the visible world. -What were his thoughts? It takes a strong man to face his contemplated -villanies. From immemorial time your scoundrel has been able to justify -his acts by some sort of crooked reasoning, and Molyneux was no -exception to the rule. "Why do you muddy the water when I am drinking?" -the wolf asked of the lamb. "How could I, sir, seeing that the stream -flows from you to me?" the lamb filed in exception. "None of your -insolence!" the wolf roared as he made his kill. - -In the same way Molyneux excluded from thought everything that -conflicted with his intention--the first rudeness that lost him Helen's -maiden confidence, his insidious attempts to wean her from her husband, -her undoubted right to reject his advances. He twisted his own crime to -her demerit. "She didn't know about that when she was drawing me on!" -he exclaimed, whenever Jenny's letter thrust into his meditation. "Why -should it cut any ice now? It is just an excuse to throw me a second -time. But she sha'n't do it, by God! no, she sha'n't, she sha'n't! -She's a coquette!--a damned coquette! I'll--" Then a red rage, a -heaving, tumultuous passion, would drown articulate thought so that his -intention never took form in words. But one thing is certain--he was -thoroughly dangerous. In that mood Helen would have fared as illy at -his hands as the lamb at the paws of the wolf. - -The sudden stoppage of his ponies, midway of the bridge, broke up his -reverie. As the moon struck full in his own face, he saw the two men -only as shadows; but there was no mistaking Bender's bulk, and, after a -single startled glance, Molyneux hailed him. "Is that you, Mr. Bender?" - -"It's me, all right. Where might _you_ be heading for?" - -It was the usual trail greeting, preliminary to conversation, but -Molyneux sensed a difference of tone, savor of command, menace of -authority, that galled his haughty spirit. Vexed by the impossibility -of explanation, his disdain of the settler tribe in general would not -permit him to lie; from which conflict of feeling his stiff answer was -born. - -"I don't see that it is any of your business." - -"You don't?" Equally stiff, the reply issued from the huge, dim shape. -"Well, I'll make it mine. You're going to Lone Tree." - -Puzzled, Molyneux glanced from Bender's indefiniteness to the Cougar's -dim crouch. He was not afraid. In him the courage of his vices was -reinforced by enormous racial and family pride--the combination that -made the British fool the finest of officers until mathematics and -quick-firing artillery replaced the sword and melee. Mistaking the -situation, he attempted to carry it off with a laugh. - -"What have you chaps been drinking? Here; pass the bottle." - -"Not till we wet your wedding," the Cougar interjected, dryly. - -Astonished now, as well as puzzled, Molyneux yet rejected a sudden -suspicion as impossible. Out of patience, galled by this mysterious -opposition, he said, testily: "Are you crazy? I do not intend--" - -"--To go to Lone Tree," Bender interrupted. "Yes, we know. You was -heading up for Glaves's place." - -Seriously disconcerted, Molyneux hid it under an ironical laugh. "I -must say that I marvel at your intimate knowledge of my affairs. And -since you are so well posted, perhaps you can tell me why I am going to -Lone Tree?" - -"I kin that." The huge, dim figure, with its crouched, attendant -shadow, moved a pace nearer, then the man's stern bass launched on the -quivering moonlight, reciting to an accompaniment of rushing waters this -oldest of woodland sagas. Beginning at the night he picked Jenny up on -the trail, he told all--Jed Hines's cruel fury; birth and burial of his, -Molyneux's child; the outcast girl's subsequent illness; Helen's -kindness; the doctor's philanthropy; the kindly conspiracy that -protected her from social infamy. "An' us that saw her through her -trouble," he finished, "are bound to see her righted." - -If the lime-lights of history and fiction were thrown more often upon -motives and psychology, and less on deeds and action, characters would -not appear in such hard colors of black and white. It were false to -paint Molyneux irredeemably black. "_Your child!_" He winced at the -phrase, and, perhaps for the first time, an inkling of the enormity of -his offence was borne in upon him. _His_ child? It was the flesh of -his own loins that had suffered midnight burial at the hands of Carter -and the kindly priest! The thought struck with enormous force--then -faded. For back of him was that vicious generation whose most cultured -exponent wrote to his own son that a seduction or two was necessary to -the education of a gentleman. Through pride of family, the dead hands -of haughty and licentious forebears reached to throttle remorse. - -Was he to be called to account by common settlers, the _savages_ of the -scornful English phrase? Anger colored his next remark: "Waited till -you were good and ready, didn't you? Your diligence falls short of your -zeal, my friends, or--" - -"Don't flatter yourself," Bender sternly interrupted. "You kin thank her -for the delay. If we'd known, you'd long ago have been either dead or -married. But she kep' her own counsel till she thought as some one -else's welfare called her to speak. 'Twasn't needed. T'other'd already -found you out for herself." - -Molyneux blinked under the savage contempt, but answered, stiffly -enough: "Now listen. I deny nothing, though she received attentions -from one of my pupils, and it might very well have been--" - -"You lie!" - -The lie never comes so unpleasantly as when asserting a truth; so, -though he knew that he had lied, Molyneux's eyes glinted wickedly, his -hand tightened on his whip. A glance right and left showed him the -river, only a light hand-rail between him and dark waters. There was -not room to turn; the giant blocked the way. Under constraint, he spoke -quietly: "Neither do I profess sorrow. What is done is done. If the -girl had taken me into her confidence--" - -"Likely, wasn't it?" - -A line of Jenny's letter, a damnable fact, flashed into Molyneux's mind, -but he went on: "--I'd have taken care of her--am willing to do so yet, -in a certain way. Marriage, of course, is out of the question. We are -unfitted for each other--" - -"No one's denying that." - -He ignored the sarcasm. "--could not be happy together." - -"Who said anything about your living together?" - -The interruptions were most disconcerting, but he continued: "Now if -you, as her representatives, self-appointed or otherwise"--he could not -refrain from the sarcasm--"if you will name a sum--" - -"_What?_" - -Twenty rods away the camp now slept, steeped in the drug of labor--all -but the cook, who came running out of his tent and was thus witness of -the event. Looking up-stream, he saw them blackly silhouetted against -the moonlit sky, a shadow show, play of marionettes upon the bridge. - -"Out of my way! Let go!" - -Followed the swish and crack of Molyneux's whip, as he lashed Bender -over the face, then fell to flogging his horses. But stinging pain -freed in the giant those bulldog passions that had made him king of the -camps in other years. He hung on, while the plunging beasts drowned the -river's roar in thunder of iron hoofs. Unable to break his grip, they -reared--their smooth, elongated bodies conveying to the cook an odd -impression of slugs reaching upward through moonlit dew--then, stooping -quickly under the nigh beast, the mad giant took its full weight on his -shoulder and with a mighty heave sent team and rig crashing sideways off -the bridge. - -A quick leap saved Molyneux--for the moment. All through the action had -moved with kinetoscopic quickness, and it accelerated so that the cook -could scarcely establish its sequence. Like an angry bull, Bender shook -the hair from his eyes; then, as he rushed, came a report; a puff of -smoke curled bluely up from Molyneux's hand; the giant thudded at length -on the bridge. Followed a yell, a piercing cry suitable to the animal -after which the Cougar was named. As Bender fell, he rushed. The pistol -spoke again. While the cook was running twenty yards, a black, furious -tangle writhed over the bridge, and as he came darting out from behind a -bunch of willow scrub he saw that it was gone. Bender lay alone under -the moonlight. - - -Now this was the cook of a lumber-camp, equivalent to saying that he was -a man of parts. He had cooked on B Contract, Superior Construction -Division of the Trunk Line, and so had seen a liberal sprinkling of his -grumblers go into the dump--a grisly foundation for track, surely yet -what better could the builders of the road desire than to be cradled -under the ties and sleep, sleep, sleep, to the thundering lullaby of the -fast express? Which intimacy with the pale terror is responsible for -his prompt action in these unusual premises. Molyneux's bullet had -merely grazed Bender's temple. He rose, staggering, as the cook made the -bridge, and, seeing that he was too sick and dizzy to handle the -situation, the latter took it into his own able hands. - -As before mentioned, a drive camp sleeps in its boots, and the shots had -brought a score out from their sleep on a hunt for causes. "Man drove -offen the bridge!" he yelled. "An' Cougar went after him! They're both -under the drive! Scatter down-stream an' skin your eyes for bubbles!" - -Thus, on the spur of the moment, the cook wrote history--as accurately, -perhaps, as the run of historians; for after the drive once closed -serried ranks over the struggling men, they were never seen again, so -none could rise with an opposing theory. When, a few days later, the -water was drawn off at the first dam, the horses floated out on the -shallows. But the men--? The river carried them to its secret places; -buried them in some scour or pothole, free at last, one of his -passions--the incubus of his generations--the other from his pain. That -night, if such things be, the Cougar was joined, after his years of -suffering, in perfect knowledge with his "little girl." - - - - - *XXI* - - *PERSECUTION* - - -Yes, the cook made history, for though the event furnished gossip for -the ninety days which, on the lonely frontier, corresponds with the -world's nine days' wonder, his story was never questioned. The truth -lay buried between him and Bender, and if either visited her grave, it -was never in company with the other. Up to the time that delirium -tremens removed the cook from the snows of a Rocky Mountain camp to a -sphere where pots are said to boil with or without watching, Bender -never knew just how much or little he really knew. - -To others the event appeared under varying complexions. Helen and Jenny -were shocked at Molyneux's death, the latter without astonishment, -though her firm belief that sin had at last received its full wage was -without trace of malignance; both were sorrier than they had any right -to be; and both mourned the Cougar. As for the settlers, they regarded -the affair rather in the light of a special dispensation of Providence. -Flocking to the auction of Molyneux's effects a month later, they -caballed against high bidding, paid for chattels they bought at -ridiculous prices in long-time notes, for that was the "Black Year," and -throughout Manitoba nothing could be sold for cash. - -Poverty, sociologists tell us, is the mother of crime, and as those hard -times subsequently influenced the settlers in their attitude towards -Helen, they are surely worthy of mention. To begin, the country was -practically bankrupt. The frost of the preceding fall had left the -wheat useless, and but for the fact that the provincial government had -imported and distributed free seed, not an acre of grain would have been -sown that year. The seriousness of the crisis may be gauged by the -legislature's further action in enacting an exemption law that -practically excluded all of a farmer's goods and chattels from legal -execution. This was good, but in that it was not, nor could be made -retroactive, it benefited only the new-comers and left the pioneers, who -had spent their little all opening up the country, still liable to -foreclosure and execution. - -On the northern settlers times had borne particularly hard. During boom -years all had assumed loan indebtedness, and whereas creditors had bided -patiently successive lean seasons on the chance of a branch railroad and -bumper crop, now that the country's credit, its very future was -trembling in the balance; implement-men and store-keepers raced with -twenty-per-cent. Shylocks to grab what they could from the wreck. That -spring the sheriff of Brandon was the busiest man in the country-side. -He and his deputies sowed summonses, executions, foreclosures broadcast -over the land. Wolves of the law, they harried the farmers till the -optimism of the brilliant emigration pamphlets was swamped, submerged -beneath inky pessimism. Small wonder that--coupled with idleness, -breeder of mischief, in the slack season that Glaves feared between -seeding and haying--small wonder that some of the rancor bred by hard -conditions should be vented upon Helen. - -She may be said to have stood in an uncomfortable position as lightning -conductor between this cloud of spleen and the earth, upon which it -should have properly been discharged. And looking back, one may see the -storm gathering over her fair head, observing in its approach all of the -natural phenomena: first the cold wind, social disfavor, the whispers; -next, heavy drops thudding in the dust, the snubs and slights; lastly, -thunder, lightning, rain, downright persecution. - -The whispers, of course, she did not hear, but she could not overlook -the difference in trail greetings, which were either far too warm or -much too cool, according to the years and disposition of the greeter. -Coldness was endurable, but the rude stares, conscious laughter of the -younger boors often caused her to fly the hot colors of angry shame. -Yet even this hurt less than the sudden, shy suspicion of her pupils. -Whereas they were wont to hang upon her skirts, they now held aloof in -play hours, and ran straight home from school. - -"Mother says I'm not to walk with you any more," one tot explained her -haste. How that stung! Having only the faintest of ideas, little more -than a suspicion of the strength and nature of this uncomfortable -prejudice, she resented it as bitter injustice, and held a proud head -until a thing happened that almost broke her spirit. - -Of all the settler women, Ruth Murchison was the one girl with whom -Helen had been, or could be, on anything like terms of intimacy. Quiet -and thoughtful, Ruth had gone through the English common schools, and -had taken the Junior Oxford Examination, to which passable education a -taste for good reading had formed a further bond. Wherefore Helen was -delighted when, one day, news drifted into the post-office that Ruth was -to be married to the Probationer, the young minister who preached -Merrill's funeral sermon. - -Borrowing a beast from Glaves, she rode north one evening to offer -congratulations, and as the Murchisons lived several miles north of -Silver Creek Valley, night fell while she still lacked half a mile of -the homestead. From that distance the windows' yellow blaze advised of -fuss and busy preparation. Drawing nearer, voices, laughter, the whir -of an egg-beater, clatter of cooking-gear came down the trail merrily -freighting the dusk. Infected by the cheer, she gave a shrill halloa, -spurred to a gallop, and drew in at the door with a clatter of hoofs. - -"Ruth! Oh, Ruth!" she called. "Ruth-y!" - -Instantly the voices hushed, then, after an uncomfortable pause, she -heard Mrs. Murchison say, in thin, constrained tones, "Mrs. Carter is -out there, father." - -Followed a shuffling, and the door opened revealing Murchison framed in -yellow light. Stout, robust, ruddy, with that mottled-beef English -complexion, he came of that stout yeoman stock whose twanging long-bows -sounded France's knell at Crecy and Poitiers, of that rich blood the -slow drainage of which to her colonies has left England flabby, ensemic, -flaccid. He had not wished to leave, but the motherland had become -industrial without further place for her yeoman. Over fields that were -enriched by the tilth of thirty Murchison generations, a thousand -factories were depositing soot and blighting acids. American wheat and -beeves had wiped out profits, while enormous rents ate up the farmer's -substance. So Murchison, England's best, had become partner in exile -with the remittance-men, her worst. Undoubtedly, there was no symptom of -remittance weakness in the scowl he turned on Helen. - -Behind him Helen could see Ruth, red and embarrassed, hanging her head -over the egg-beater. A half-dozen girls and neighboring women, who had -come in to help in the baking and brewing, were exchanging meaning -glances across the table. - -"Ruth? She's well," Murchison answered her question. - -She knew what to expect now, but nerved herself to face the situation. -"Can't I see her?" - -"No." - -"Why?" - -"Because she don't run with your kind." - -"Oh, Mr. Murchison!" - -He felt the heart sickness, yet glowered relentlessly, for it had been -the habit of his forebears to thrash their women into good behavior. He -itched to do it now for the good of her soul, but, lacking the power, he -growled: - -"If you don't like it--keep better company." - -If he had been alone, she would undoubtedly have challenged his reproach -and, while clearing herself in his eyes, have turned away future -trouble. But a titter from within fired her pride. "Very well, please -give her my congratulations." And turning she rode away. - -Good-hearted as rough, Murchison stared after, stricken with sudden -compunction. He knew that she must have intended to stay the night, and -here she was a timorous woman riding out into the darkness. "Here!" he -shouted. "Come back!" - -But she held on, eyes snapping, cheeks aflame, throat convulsed under -the strain of suppressing imminent hysteria. Beyond earshot she broke -down, venting her injured loneliness in broken speech between bursts of -sobbing. "They hate--me. Condemn me--because--my husband left me. It -wasn't my--fault--that is, altogether." She hastily corrected herself. -"Of course--I failed him. But I was--sorry--would have done better--if -he had--given me a chance. He's so stern--and stiff--" She would not -even let this undoubted truth pass unmodified. "But then--he thought I -didn't--love him. Perhaps I didn't--then. I was a little fool. But I -do! I do!" She stretched wild arms to the darkness. "I do! I do! I -do!" But the velvet night returned nothing to her embrace and she -collapsed, sobbing, upon the pony's neck. Still the cry did her good, -tided over hysteria, composed and quieted her so that she was able to -meet the trustee's glance of spectacled inquiry as she entered the -cabin. - -Kindliness as well as curiosity inhered in his glance, for, besides the -cash and educational prestige which she had brought to his cabin, Jimmy -had come to like her for herself. The frost and grizzle of fifty -winters thawed under his smile as he threw a Winnipeg paper across the -table. "Catch! Just kem in. Yes, there's a story 'bout him. Now, -don't eat it." - -Metaphorically, she did, indeed, devour the article, and while she read -the trustee watched with something of puzzled astonishment the lovely -tide that flowed out from the lace at her neck, and drowned her pale -creams to the roots of her hair. He had ample opportunity for study as -the article was long. Just then Carter's line, with its promise of -competition, focussed the interest of the entire province, and some -enterprising scribe had risen to the opportunity afforded by a visit -west of the general manager of the trunk line, to interview him upon the -probable action of his road in proceedings to condemn a crossing of its -right of way. Time, however, had not abated one iota of the manager's -sphinx like quality. While affable, he had declined to discuss railroad -politics, remarking that his company did not "cross bridges before they -were built." Interviewed in his turn upon the significance of the -aforesaid remark, Carter had ventured the opinion that the trunk-line -people would not oppose the crossing, and thereby had provoked a flaming -editorial upon his artlessness. - -"If the people behind Mr. Carter imagine that the greediest monopoly in -history will loose its grip on this province till the law's crowbar -pries off its fingers one by one, they are mightily mistaken," the -editor hotly declared. "Forewarned is forearmed, and we hereby present -them, gratis, with this piece of information--while they are running -their grades in peaceful confidence that will be most appropriate in the -innocent age when lion and lamb lie down together, the monopoly is -gathering men and means, preparing to crush their enterprise by force -should the crooked enginery of the law fail its purpose. Why else have -five hundred extra men been distributed among the sections on either -side of the proposed crossing? Why does a gravel-train stand there -permanently across the proposed right of way? Soon Mr. Carter will -receive unmistakable answer to these questions." - -"He's dead right there, that editor man," the trustee said when, all -rosy red, Helen looked up from her reading. "Old Brass-Bowels was born -with a nateral insight into the nater of a dead cinch." - -"But won't the law support my"--she paused, then proudly finished--"my -husband? Can't he compel a crossing?" - -"The law?" Sniffing, Jimmy indicated the legal patchwork on the wall -with a comprehensive sweep of his pipe. "The law said as I was to pay -them, but did I? Humph!" - -"But they'll hardly dare to fly in the face of the province? Public -opinion is a great moral force." She quoted a sentence from the -editorial with gusto. - -"Yes, but 'tain't much of a club. Did you ever see one of my hawgs -stan' aside, even when he was full, to let another have a go at the -trough? Not till I hit him on the snout. Well, they ain't agoin' to -cross the trunk line these two years, an' for my part I don't care if -they never cross." - -"Why?" Her eyes dilated widely. "Wouldn't a competing line benefit -you--all of the province?" - -Nodding, he regarded her from half-shut eyes. "Oh, I ain't expecting to -walk on gold this side o' the pearly gates. As for my reasons, they -ain't a mile away from here. I'm not wishing too much success for a man -that deserts his wife." - -Touched and very much flushed as to the face by his genuine, if crabbed -sympathy, the Reasons yet shook her head and spoke up for the recreant -husband stoutly as she had defended him against herself. She made, -however, small headway against his obduracy. - -"Well, that's the way I see it. By-the-way," he added, heading off a -disposition for further argument, "did you see the evangelist? Pitched -his tent over by Flynn's. You want to go. Beats a three-ring circus -when old man Cummings hits up to his gait." - -"Jimmy! Jimmy!" His wife looked up from her ironing; then daunted, -perhaps, by his twinkle, she addressed Helen. "He hadn't orter talk -that away, my dear. If Mr. Cummings does go on the rampage a bit when -he gets het up, at least he's sincere. As for him--" She turned a -severe eye on her husband. "We'll get him yet." - -"Yes, I see myself. Her idea of heaven"--he shrugged at the -ironing-board--"is an eternal class-meeting with everybody giving their -experience--love-feast she calls it. I like something solider. Give me -plenty to eat, a pipe by a warm fire, an' something to read, an' I'll -sign away my harp an' crown." Ignoring his better-half's remark that he -would not lack the fire, he finished: "She's going. Wouldn't miss a -meeting. Kedn't keep her away with a club. So if you'd alike to see -some fun--" - -"If 'twas jes' out of curiosity I'd ask her to stay at home," his wife -interrupted. "But she's not that kind, an' I'll be glad to take her." - -"If you will?" Helen assented, and so, returning to the analogy, placed -herself directly beneath the leaden belly of the lowering storm. - - - - - *XXII* - - *DENUNCIATION* - - -A molten sun was smouldering in the ashes of day when, the following -evening, Helen with Mrs. Glaves, drove up to the gospel-tent. It still -lacked half an hour of meeting-time, so, while her companion joined the -early arrivals who were passing time by holding a service of song -inside, Helen remained in the buckboard and watched the sunset, observed -herself by a group of remittance-men and a scattering of settler youths -who sprawled near by on the grass. - -Enthralled, she scarcely saw them; had eyes only for the ruby sun that -stained the prairies with amber incandescences, the ribbed glories of -the fiery cloud pillars that seemed to uphold the darkling vault above. -As the orb slid into his blankets of rose and gold, shy stars peeped -down at the violet shadows that crawled slowly up the slopes and knolls; -over all fell the hush of evening. - -It was one of the moments when the Riddle of Infinity, Puzzles of Time, -Space, Eternity appear as concrete though unthinkable realities; weigh -down and oppress the soul with a sense of its insignificance. Against -the black-blue vault the stars loomed as worlds; she could see beyond, -around them. Through vast voids planets were rushing on their courses; -suns with attendant systems swung on measured arcs obedient to--what? -... A thin minor, querulous plaint stole out on the hush: - - "Poor crawling Worm of Earth, - A Child of Sin am I--" - - -It was an honest attempt at the riddle, but its incongruity, futile -insufficiency caused her to shrug with sudden annoyance. She wondered -if, somewhere in planetary space, other "pinches of sentient dust" were -equally afflicted with a sense of their central importance in the scheme -of things. The apologetic whine spoiled the sunset; she impatiently -turned to watch the arrivals--the wagons, buck-boards, horsemen--that -were streaming in on every trail. - -"How are you, Mrs. Carter?" - -It was Danvers, Molyneux's old pupil. An honest lad and merry, she -always liked him, and now made him welcome to the seat beside her, and -laughed at his fire of chaff. Indicating Cummings, whose ovine -expression had sustained no diminution since the day he bearded the -general manager, he remarked: "He's great, Mrs. Carter; puts it all over -Henry Irving. And there's the sky pilot! What a Jovelike port!" - -There was, of course, little wit and less humor in his chaff, but his -intentions were honorable, so, ignoring the sour looks of the arriving -settlers, she gave him smiling attention up to the moment they entered -the tent together, and so prepared the way for what followed. For -though, going in, she left levity without, her modest and devout bearing -could not mitigate her offence in allying herself with the English -Ishmael. It was aggravated, moreover, by her remaining with him in -close proximity to the remittance crowd on the back benches. Thereafter -nothing could save her; she remained a target for sour glances -throughout the service. - -This was on the usual pattern--rousing hymns, prayer, testimony, and -exhortation--then when groans and ejaculations testified to the -spiritual temperature, the evangelist, a stout man of bull-like build, -proceeded to cut off yards of the "undying worm," and to measure bushels -of the "fire that quencheth not" for the portion of such as refused to -view the problems of Infinity through aught but his own wildly gleaming -spectacles. His discourse, indeed, bristled with those cant terms which, -while entirely devoid of meaning, are still eminently conducive of -religious hysteria, and his efforts were the more successful because of -the absence of the Probationer, a thoughtful young fellow whose rare -common-sense could be depended upon to prevent religious emotion from -degenerating into epilepsy. - -Lacking his wholesome presence, the evangelist paced the platform under -the yellow lantern-light, stretching long, black arms, hovering over the -people like some huge, dark bird as he pleaded, threatened, thundered, -launching his fiery periods on a groaning wave of "amens" and -"hallelujahs." As he went on, painting heaven and hell into his lurid -scheme of things, sighs and exclamations grew in volume, flooding -feeling pulsed through the audience, wild settler youths, who had come -to scoff, exchanged uneasy glances on the back benches, sure sign of a -coming stampede. - -This was the psychological moment, and, skilled in his trade, the -revivalist pounced upon it. Stilling the groaning chorus with upheld -hand, he solemnly invited all who were not _against_ the Lord Jesus to -stand, an old revival trick and one which now, as always, turned. For, -as before said, the plains were not yet infected with the leprosy of -agnosticism, and, Episcopalians to a man, even the Englishmen were not -willing to pose as the open enemies of God. - -Once standing and pilloried in the public eye, it was but a question of -minutes until the back benches began to yield up penitents. One by one -the settler youths were gathered into the mourning bench, until at last -Helen stood alone with the Englishmen. - -"Come ye! Come ye to the Lord!" The preacher pleaded, but, haughty and -coldly constrained, the remittance-men ignored the invitation; and so, -for the space of a thunderous hymn of praise, gnostic civilization and -the fervid frontier faced each other across the middle benches. From -that dramatic setting anything might come. Moment, feeling, atmosphere, -all pointed to the event that came to pass as the hymn died. - -Leaping upon a bench, and so adding its height to unusual tallness, a -woman pointed a warning hand at the unbelievers. Thin, family-worn, and -naturally cadaverously yellow, she was now flushed with the fever of -delirium. "In that day," she screeched, "the Tares shall be separated -from the Wheat and cast with the grass into the oven!" Then, while her -finger indicated man after man, she raised the grewsome hymn: - - "'I heard the Sinners Wailing, Wailing, Wailing, - I heard the Sinners Wailing on that Great Day!'" - - -Travelling around the benches, her skinny finger finally fastened on -Helen, and, as the lugubrious refrain came to an end, she burst forth in -tremendous paraphrase: "Beware ye of the Scarlet Woman! Avoid ye, for -her portals lead down to Death; her feet take hold of Hell!" - -The silence of paralysis followed. So still it was that a mosquito's -thin whine sounded through the tent, the tinkle of a cow-bell came in -from far pastures, a dog could be heard barking a long way off. -Swinging from the tent-pole, a circle of lanterns lit dark, flushed -faces, and thus, for the space of a long breath, Helen faced the virago, -the one glowering, malignant, the other pale with astonishment, mutely -indignant. She was not confused. On the contrary, thought and vision -were surprisingly clear; she noted Mrs. Glaves's shocked look, the -vindictive settler faces, the Englishmen's blank expressions. - -"We had better go. May I drive home, Mrs. Carter?" Danvers, the -witless, the foolish, rose to the situation. - -Low-pitched, his voice yet carried to every ear, as did her clear reply: - -"After the service is over." - -It was defiance as well as answer, and as she threw it in the lowering -face of the congregation, her glance fixed on the evangelist who, till -then, had stood, mouth open, hand arrested midway of a gesture, a -bearded, spectacled effigy of ridiculous surprise. Starting under her -pale scorn, he flushed, looked for a second through shining, bewildered -glasses, then strode forward and seized the virago's arm. - -"Sister, sister! Judge not that ye be not judged!" Then, himself -again, he swept a pudgy hand over the benches. "Sit down, all! Brother -Cummings will lead in prayer." - -It mercifully happens that sudden calamity carries its own anaesthetic -in that it blinds, confuses, destroys feeling, numbs the faculties that -ought to register its importance. Under Helen's unnatural calmness she -was dimly conscious of a sick excitement, but this was unrelated with -her thought. She saw and sensed as usual; was aware of curious backward -glances, the sympathy of the Englishmen at her side; heard every word of -Cummings's sputtering prayer, the following hymn and benediction; only -her mind refused commerce with these things. Divorced from the present, -it juggled the terms of an equation in that day's lesson up to the -moment that the remittance-men came crowding about Danvers' rig after -the meeting. - -Aside from their looseness and general inefficiency, the lads were brave -enough, and though some of them had won or lost bets on her reputation, -winners were no more eager than losers to avenge the insult that had -been provoked by her association with themselves. - -"Just say the word, Mrs. Carter," Danvers pleaded, "and we'll lick the -crowd." - -"And put a head on the preacher," young Poole added, sinfully licking -his chops. - -From the darkness that enveloped the press of rigs and wagons rose -jeering voices, sneers, laughter, the conscious cackle of scandal. -Several times she heard her own name. There was provocation and to -spare, but though a word would have started a racial riot, she desired -only solitude, to flutter home like a wounded bird to its nest. - -"No, no!" she answered them. "Take me home! Only take me home!" - -Arrived there, she flew to her own room leaving Danvers to enlighten the -trustee. Lying face down on her bed, she heard the rumble of their -conversation, Jimmy's violent reflections upon revivals particular and -general, his wife's whimpering protests when she returned. His growl -extended far into the night, and when it was finally extinguished by a -robust snoring, the girl was afflicted with a sense of lost -companionship; thereafter she had to suffer it out by herself. - -There would be more pain than profit in describing her reflections, -agonizings. Sufficient to know that a knife in the breast hurts a woman -less than a stab at her reputation, and her thought was none the sweeter -for the knowledge that she had drawn the blow by giving way to her -pique. Her resolve as expressed next morning to Jimmy Glaves is of more -concern. - -She had turned impatiently from Mrs. Glaves's tearful apologies, but -when the old trustee laid a kindly hand on her shoulder, as she passed -him in the garden on her way to school, she gave him honest eyes. - -"Now, you ain't to bother. 'Twas on'y Betsy Rodd, the old harridan. -Nobody minds her." - -But she shook her head in accordance with her resolution to face truth. -"She was expressing what was in everybody's minds. I know it, and -though I didn't intend it, I'm partly to blame, for their suspicion." -Her mouth drew thin and firm as she finished. "I shall live it down." - -"Course you will!" he heartily agreed. "That's my brave girl!" But his -face darkened after she had passed on, and he slowly wagged a grave head -as he plied his hoe in the garden. - -For he knew the difficulty, impossibility of the task she had marked out -for herself. Of Scotch descent, dogmatic, wedded to convention, intense -clannishness reinforced in the settlers bitter morality, racial hatred, -the condemnation of sin. With them the offence of the fathers was -visited upon the children to the fourth generation. It was remembered, -for instance, against Donald Ross that his great-grandfather had died a -drunkard, and the fact had limited his choice of a wife; the daughters -of Hector MacCloud took inferior husbands because their grandmother had -been born on the easy side of the knot. Handing such cold charity -around among themselves, what mercy were they likely to extend to the -suspected stranger within their gates? Jimmy was still wagging his head -when, half an hour later, the Probationer reined in at the end of the -garden. - -Hearing of the scandal on the Lone Tree trail, the young man had turned -aside to express his sorrow, and now listened patiently while the -trustee drew invidious parallels between the religious movement then -proceeding and his own misfit horticulture. "You see them?" Removing -his pipe from between his teeth, he waved it at some half-dozen -straggling apple-shoots. "Hardiest variety of Siberian crabs. -Professor at the gove'nment experimental station warranted 'em to grow -at the north pole. Remind me of your revival, they do." - -"Why? Don't they grow?" The Probationer smiled. - -"Grow? I should swan! four feet every summer, an' freeze off to the -roots every winter--jes' like your converts. Get all het up at -meetings, blossom with grace, then comes the backsliding, the frost, an' -nips the leafage. Where's the sense of it?" - -Now the Probationer had his own doubts. Having turned a prentice hand -at revival work, he was painfully familiar with its characteristic -phenomena--first, hot enthusiasm, slow cooling, obstinate adherence to -the form after the spirit has fled, finally the reaction which would -leave his people less charitable, not quite so kindly, a little poorer -in the things which make for the kingdom of Christ on earth. He had -tried to be a real shepherd to his flock--to upraise by precept, -example, counsel, and admonition. Avoiding dogma, he had brought them -together irrespective of cult and creed on the broad basis of love and a -common humanity, and just when he was beginning to expect fruit from -that liberal sowing, this bitter theologian, the revivalist, had been -loosed upon him. And this was first fruit of his work! - -Jimmy's illustration coincided exactly with his own experience, yet -fealty to his Church demanded some sort of defence. "Isn't an annual -growth better than none?" he asked. "The green shoots certainly improve -the appearance of your garden." - -Jimmy blew a derisive cloud over the few cabbages, two sickly -cauliflowers, a bed of onions, salvage from worms and spring frost of -half an acre's planting. "But you don't get results. One sound cabbage -is worth an acre of sick saplings; a cheerful sinner discounts a hundred -puckered saints. I'm scairt as the black knot has got inter that -orchard o' yourn, sir?" - -"I'm afraid so," the young fellow sadly agreed. "Well, I must try and -prune it out." - -"I'd advise the axe," Jimmy grimly commented. "An' begin with Betsy -Rodd." - -Sorrowing, the Probationer drove on to the school, where a very cold -young lady answered his call at the door. A slant of sunshine struck in -under the porch twining an aureole about her golden head, creating an -auriferous nimbus for her shapely figure. Standing there, so cold and -pale, she might have passed for a statue of purity, and the Probationer, -being young and still impressionable albeit engaged, wondered that any -should have dared to doubt her. Thawing when he mentioned Ruth, she -froze again as soon as he touched, apologetically, upon the event of the -night before. - -"If religion strips them of common charity, they would be better without -it," she answered his apology, and turned but a cold ear to his plea for -his people. - -"They were altogether subject to emotion, incapable of a reasoned rule -of life," he said. "With the fear of God removed from their hearts, -they would drop to unmentionable levels, to say nothing of the hope and -consolation religion brought to sweeten their hard lives." - -But he made little headway. "I don't doubt they are not quite so bad as -they would like to be. But there, let us drop the subject. Won't you -come in and examine the children?" - -From this conversation it will be seen that her resolve to "live it -down" was not exactly founded upon grounds that would appeal to a -professor of ethics; yet her attitude was very natural, and not so -deplorable as would at first appear. Was she so much to blame? Hardness -breeds hardness, opposition its like. Fire flies from the impact of -rock and iron. Always like begets like, heredity applies to mental -forces. Moreover, injured pride has stiffened more weak spines and given -better results than the command to turn the other cheek; the desire to -"show people" lies at the root of many a bravery. Lastly, once -rehabilitated socially, softness comes later to the injured member, -increasing in ratio to the respect of his or her community. And so it -would have been with Helen--with a different people. - - - - - *XXIII* - - *THE CHARIVARI* - - -Straddling a log in his dooryard, the trustee whistled softly while he -whittled and shaped a pair of birch crooks into the ox-collars that, -with trace-chains, are preferred in the northland to the old-fashioned -bows and yoke. The revival was over. After passing from house to house -like measles, mumps, or other dark disease, infecting men on trail, by -fireside, at the plough-tail with the prejudice he styled religion, the -evangelist had reported so many head of "saved" to his superiors, and so -had swooped like a plague upon other settlements, leaving the -Probationer to repair, as best he might, his ravages in this. Now, two -weeks later, symptoms in Silver Creek indicated a quick recovery; extra -meetings had altogether ceased, bi-weekly prayer-meetings languished, -remarks at the plough-tail showed signs of former vigor; the sweat and -labor of haying would undoubtedly bring complete convalescence and, with -it, danger for Helen. For while the religious excitement had served her -by excluding all else from the settler mind, tongues would be the -sharper, prejudice the keener for the rest. It was but a lull in the -storm, the hush that follows the first flash and crash of thunder. - -It was knowledge of this fact that inspired the trustee's thoughtful -whistling. Already he smelled trouble on the wind, the impression being -formed on many small significances--looks, nods, winks, and whispered -asides at "bees" and "raisings." More important: his cabin, which, as -post-office, had been a social focus, centre of news and gossip, a place -to linger and chat, had of late been almost deserted. Calling for their -mail, his neighbors departed with the shortest of salutations. So, -having had a gray eye on trouble through all, he was not surprised when -she presently appeared between Shinn and Hines in the latter's -buck-board. Indeed, his comment while they were still a hundred yards -away signified profound distrust. "Gummed if the coyotes ain't running -in packs this weather." His beetling brows, moreover, drew a grizzled -line across his hawk nose when the two reined in opposite; he glared -suspiciously while Hines glibly discoursed on crops, weather, the -ox-collars; nor hesitated to interrupt and reach for trouble's forelock. - -"Crops is fair to middling, nothing wrong with the hay, the crooks is -for Flynn--now, what is it?" - -Hines blinked and looked silly, but the check worked oppositely on -Shinn. Of that gaunt, raw-boned, backwoods type produced by generations -of ineffable hardship and slavish labor, he stood over six feet, and -combined great strength with mean ferocity and uncontrollable passion. -His huge mouth twitched feverishly as he answered, "Sence you're so -pressing--it's the talk through the settlement that we orter have a new -teacher." - -"Umph!" Grunt could not convey greater contempt. "Hain't you got a -teacher?" - -"Yes, but it's agreed that she ain't quite the sort to put over -innercent children." - -This time the trustee snorted, "Might infect them brats o' yourn with -her sweet manners, eh?" - -Shinn flushed dully under his yellow skin. "That or something else. -Anyway, every one's agreed that she's gotter go." - -"Who's everybody?" - -"Meeting, held at my place." Recovering, Hines backed up his partner. - -"Yes? First I heard of it. Was Flynn there? Thought not; he ain't much -of a mixer. Didn't ask me, did you?" - -Hines shuffled uneasily. "'Twas held after a prayer-meeting--you might -ha' been there." - -"Prayer-meeting, eh? Real Christian, wasn't it, to try and take the -bread out of a good girl's mouth?" - -"_Good?_" - -At Hines's sneer the trustee rose, hand gripping hard on a heavy crook, -eyes one gray glare under ragged brows, temple veins ridged and swollen. -"I said 'good.'" - -On the frontier a man must usually furnish material proof of courage, -but there are exceptions from whom imminent fearlessness distils as an -exhalation affecting all who come within its atmosphere. Carter was -such a one; Glaves another. Though neither had found it necessary to -"make good" physically during the settlement's short history, their -ability to do so was never at question. Behind the reserve of one, -crabbed sarcasm of the other, danger lay so close to the surface that it -was always felt, could never be quite forgotten. Indeed, as regards -Glaves, the feeling took form in the opinion often delivered when the -qualities of men were under discussion--"If the old man ever gets -started, some one will earn a quick funeral." Now Hines quailed, and -even the truculent Shinn observed silence. - -Glaring on the shrinking Hines, the trustee went on: "Never forgot how -Carter bluffed you out on that hay business, did you? An' as you wasn't -man enough to get back at him, you 'lowed to take it out of his wife? -Well, you ain't going to. You kin go back an' tell them that sent you -that so long as Flynn an' me sit on the board she'll teach this school." - -"That," Shinn retorted, "would be till nex' election, but she won't stay -that long. Sence you're so stiff about it, Glaves, let me tell you that -you kain't fly in the face of this settlement. You may be big wolf, but -there's others in the pack. If she's here at the end of the -month--there'll be something doing." Nodding evilly, he drove on, -leaving the trustee to puzzle over his meaning as he shaped and polished -the crooks. - -"Bluffing, I reckon," he concluded, and that, also, was the opinion of -Flynn, to whom he carried his doubts that evening. - -"There'll be no way for thim spalpeens to fire us av the boord?" Flynn -queried. "No? Phwat about an opposhition school?" - -"Agin the law to build one in this township." - -"Thin 'tis all out av the big mouth av Shinn. Thalk, an' nothing more." - -Both were confirmed in their opinion when the month drew to a peaceful, -if hot, end. Tricked out in various green, woods and prairies slumbered -or sighed restlessly under torrid heat that extracted their essential -essences, weighting the heavy air with intense odors of curing grasses. -There was nothing to indicate that the virulent tide of spleen was ready -to burst its banks. Knowing that another week would bring on haying, -with its attendant wars to provide an outlet for feeling, neither -trustee anticipated the event which occurred at the full of the moon. - -Though the storm broke around Glaves's cabin, Flynn received immediate -notice. In pleasant weather he and his wife would sit on their doorstep -after the children were in bed, to enjoy the quiet hour while the peace -and cool charmed away the cares of the day; and this night was -particularly beautiful. Over dewlit plains the moon emptied a flood of -silver and polished the slough beyond the dooryard till it shone like -burnished steel. Rolling off and away under that tender light, the huge -earth waves seemed to heave, swell, sigh as a lover's bosom under the -sweet eyes of his mistress, while from the corrals near by issued the -heavy breathing of contented kine. Always music in the ears of a -farmer, it stimulated Flynn, set him planning for the future; but he had -hardly touched on next year's increase before Mrs. Flynn seized his arm. - -"Phwat's that?" - -At first Flynn thought that Glaves was "dogging" stray cattle away from -his grain-fields, but when the iron note of beaten pans, gunshots, -metallic thundering were added to the first clash of cow-bells, he -sprang up. "A charivari! At Glaves's! A spite charivari!" - -"Oh, my God, Flynn!" his wife exclaimed. "That poor girl!" She knew -what that orgy of sound portended. A jest at weddings, the charivari was -sometimes used as a sinister weapon to express communal dislike or -punish suspicion of sin. The most terrible memory of her girlhood was -associated with a party of fiercely moral backwoodsmen that flogged a -man at her father's wagon-tail and dragged a woman, who had offended -public morals, naked and screaming through a field of thistles. In -Silver Creek were men who had participated in that cruelty, forced to -emigrate to escape the law. Small wonder that she agonized under the -thought. "Flynn! Flynn, man! Hurry, get your horse!" - -Holding the light for him to saddle, she called after as he rode away: -"Go round be Misther Danvers'! 'Tis on'y a mile out av your way! Going -by here at noon, himself told me that he was to have a sthag-party the -night! They'll jump at the chance, an' fight none the worse for a -smhell av the whiskey!" - -A cold, with complications in the shape of rheumatic pains, sent the -trustee early to bed that evening, and Helen was sewing by the fire with -Mrs. Glaves when the charivari turned loose outside. As, jumping up, -they stood staring at one another, he shouted for them to bolt the door; -and as, after complying, Helen returned to the fire he came limping out, -bent, warped, and twisted by sciatica, half dressed, but grimly -resolute. - -"Danger?" he rasped, swinging round on his wife as the house trembled -under sudden thunder of scurrying hoofs outside. "Listen!" And when -pained bellows followed dropping shots, he added: "Peppering the cattle. -Scairt? Then go an' stick your fool head under a pillow. How is it with -you?" - -As a matter of fact, Helen's face was as white as the fluffy shawl from -which her golden head rose like a yellow crocus above soft spring snows; -but, noting the thin, scarlet line of her mouth, the trustee nodded his -satisfaction. "You'll do. Swing round that lounge--here, where I can -train a gun on the door. Good!" He eased his length along it with a -groan of relief. "Now hand me the gun--no, the other." Rehanging his -own long duck-gun upon its wooden pegs, she brought him the famous -double-barrelled Greener which, having disarranged the lock action in -trying to clean it, Danvers had left with the trustee for repairs. -"There, put out the light an' take a look out at the window." - -Pulling the curtain aside, she got full benefit of the brazen clamor -while learning something of its genesis, for, while easily recognizable, -the din of beaten pans, cow-bells, gunshots, and yells formed only a -minor accompaniment to a barbarous metallic roll, louder than a corps of -beaten drums, and a discordant screech that discounted the torment of a -thousand tortured fiddles. Now she saw two men rapidly vibrating long -cross-cut saws back and forth against the house, while others drew a -rosined plank to and fro across a log, concentrating the discords of the -world into a single excruciating note. Closing her ears, she took -further note of the score of dark figures that came and went in the -moonlight, leaping, shouting, gesticulating strangely, as though crazed -by the frenzy of noise. Weird, sinister shapes, they moved, massed, and -melted to units again as in some mad carnival or distorted madman's -dream. - -The trustee pulled her skirt. "Come away! They might shoot at the -window." - -Obeying, she knelt beside him--fortunately with her back to the pane -that, a few minutes later, shivered and flew in fine rain. "Drunk!" -Glaves commented; and as a piercing cry, clever imitation of a cougar, -rang high over a slight lull, he said, "That's sure Bill MacCloud." He -grimly added--for, besides being dissolute, the man was a scoffer and -leader against religion: "Gosh! but the saints are keeping queer -company. Bill ain't more'n a mile 'way from his bottle." - -After that one lull the tumult increased in loudness and volume, and for -a long half-hour Helen listened as some soft maid of Rome may have -hearkened to the din of Goth or ravaging Hun in the sacred streets of -the imperial city. To her, brought up under the shadow of law, with its -material manifestation--a policeman--always within call, the brutal -elemental passion behind that huge, amorphous voice was very terrible. -Almost equally fearful was the sudden cessation that set the silence -singing in her ears, the voiceless darkness, thick night of that black -room. - -Touching the trustee, more for the comfort of his presence than to draw -his attention, she whispered, "What now?" - -Just then the door rattled under a heavy kick; a strident voice answered -her question: "Open, Glaves, an' send out that ---- baggage" (it was a -viler word) "or we'll burn the house over your ears!" - -"You will--" the trustee began, but was interrupted by a wail from his -wife in the bedroom. - -"Jimmy! Oh, Jimmy, don't let 'em have her. They'll duck her in the -slough--mebbe drown her like they did Jenny Ross back in Huron." - -"Will you shet up!" he roared, but the man outside had heard. - -"You bet we will. She needs a little cooling." - -"That's surely Mr. Shinn that's talking so fierce!" the trustee taunted. -"Man, but you're gaining a heap wolfish, though it did take you some -time to work up to the p'int of speech. Why didn't you take the -shortcut through Bill's bottle?" His tone suddenly altered from banter -to such stern command that they distinctly heard Shinn shuffle back a -step from the door. "Burn this house? Get, or I'll blow the black -heart out of you!" - -A derisive yell rose outside, then silence fell again, a hush so -complete that Helen distinctly heard the tick of the clock, her own -breathing, the chirrup of a hearth cricket. Pulling the trustee's -sleeve, she whispered, "I've brought _such_ trouble upon you!" - -"Rubbish!" he snapped. "Say that ag'in an' I'll spank you!" But he -gently patted her hand. - -A minute slid by without further speech; a second, third, fourth, then -she whispered, "Surely they must have gone." - -Before he could reply came a rapid beat of running feet, a splintering -crash, an oblong of moonlight flashed out of the darkness at the end of -the room, and quiet reigned again. Only the battering ram, a long log, -poked its blunt nose over the doorsill. - -"Stand clear there!" the trustee sharply warned. Then, as a dim, -crouched figure appeared between the jambs, he shouted, "Fair warning!" -and fired; but as the figure fell back and out, a chuckling laugh -drifted through the smoke, Shinn's coarse voice yelled: "His gun's -single barrel! In, afore he kin reload!" and a black, surging mass -trampled over the dummy and filled the doorway. As aforeseen, the -conclusion was justified--the trustee's long gun was familiar as his -face in the settlement--and the click of Danvers' left trigger was -drowned by a second harsh command--"Fair warning!" - -The report, thunderous, ear-splitting in the confined space, certified -to Shinn's mistake. His writhing mouth, Hines's wintry visage, the -press of men in the door showed redly under the flash, then sulphurous -darkness wiped out all. To Helen, its smothering pall seemed to pulse -with thick life, to extend clutching fingers, horrors that were -intensified by Mrs. Glaves's sudden burst of hysterical screaming. -Crouched behind Glaves, she listened in agony to the swearing, sharp -oaths, as men tripped and stumbled over the furniture and one another. -There was no escape. They were feeling for her all over the room, and -through a sick horror she heard Shinn's triumphant yell-- - -"I've got her!" - -A choked gurgle, snarl of rage, as Glaves fastened onto his throat, -explained his mistake. "Hell! has no one a match?" His strangled voice -issued from a dark whorl, crash of splintering furniture, as they swung -and staggered in that pit of gloom. The struggle could have but one -ending. Healthy, Glaves would have been no match for Shinn, and, as a -match scratched, came the soft thud of his body as he was thrown with -brutal force against the wall. - -Flaring up, the flame revealed Helen, white, trembling, sick with that -paralysis of fear that a mouse must feel in the claws of a cat. From -the bedroom came the hysterical whooping, terrible in its sameness. -Wide-eyed, she stared, fascinated, at Shinn, but he also was staring at -a body spread-eagled before the door, its face turned down in a black, -viscid, spreading pool. The match went out. - -"My God!" a man cried. "It's Hines!" - -But Helen did not hear that or a cry from outside warning of approaching -hoofs. Throughout the frenzy of noise, horror of darkness, suspense, -the attack, she had carried herself bravely; but this swift death, -following on all, broke her shaken nerves, deprived her of -consciousness. - -The trustee, however, heard and saw the house vomit its black life, the -dark figures streaming under the moonlight out to the bluff where the -horses were tied, panic-stricken by sudden death and uneasy memories of -outraged law. Leaning in his doorway, bent and bruised, he saw also -Flynn and Danvers thunder by with a score of remittance-men, a wild -cavalcade hard on their heels. In the Irishman's hand a neck-yoke swung -with ominous rattle of iron rings; Danvers carried a cavalry sabre he -had snatched from his wall; the others brandished clubs. Looming an -instant in the steam of their sweating beasts, they shot on with a glad -hurrah. - -"Yoicks! Tally-ho!" young Poole shrilled as he passed. "Sic 'em, -Flynn!" - -"A Flynn! A Flynn!" Danvers squeaked as Shinn crumpled under the -neck-yoke. - -Wild lads, under wilder leadership, they fought--as Mrs. Flynn had -predicted--none the worse for a smell at the whiskey. Those of the -enemy who made a slow mounting were ridden down, fell under the clubs, -or achieved uncomfortable leaps into briers and scrub, to be afterwards -caught and drubbed, while such as escaped were run down and brought to -bay by twos and threes. In a running fight over miles of moonlit -prairie the grudges of years were settled; jeers, gibes, many a cheating -received payment in full, with arrears of interest. Thus Cummings -received from Danvers the "boot" due on the mare that Carter once -described as being "blind, spavined, sweenied, an' old enough to -homestead," payment being slapped down upon the spot where most pain may -be inflicted with least structural damage. In like manner Poole settled -with Peter Rodd for a cannibalistic sow; Perceval with MacCloud, arrears -_not_ due on a quarter-section of scrub; Gray with Seebach for forty -bushels of heated seed wheat. Leaving them to their rough auditing, the -story returns with Flynn to the cabin after the dropping of Shinn. - -After relighting the lamp, Glaves had carried his sore bones back to the -lounge, and when Flynn entered he found the terrible old fellow -glowering upon the dead. His wife's hysteria had slackened to a strained -sobbing, and, answering Flynn's question, he tartly replied: "No, -'tain't Mrs. Carter. Had her fainting-spell an' kem to without any -fuss, like a sensible girl. She's in there tending to that old fool." -Then, beetling again on the dead, he forecast the verdict of the -sheriff's jury. "Ye'll bear witness, Flynn, that this man kem to his -death through running into a charge of buckshot after my winder 'd been -shot in an' door battered down." - - - - - *XXIV* - - *WITHOUT THE PALE* - - -"I really believe that I _ought_ to resign!" - -When, one morning a week later, Helen delivered herself of certain -secret misgivings at breakfast, the trustee looked up, startled, from -his eggs and mush, then proceeded to fish for motives. - -"Scairt? You needn't to be. We've got this settlement by the short -hairs at last." - -His rude metaphor roughly set forth the truth. Without ties, the -bachelors of the charivari party had scattered west through the -territories, while Shinn, MacCloud, and other married men had gone into -such close hiding that the sheriff had been unable to subpoena one for -the inquest. But though she neither feared nor anticipated further -violence, Helen now knew that she never would be able to live down the -settlers' prejudice; and without the children's love, parents' -confidence, her day of usefulness was past. - -Glaves snorted at this altruistic reason. "Love? Confidence? What's -their market value? You kedn't hope to compete with a dollar note for -the first; as for the second-- Danvers hit it off exactly when he stuck -that sign on his stable door--'No more trading here!' Now, from my -p'int of view, it isn't a question of love or confidence, but one of -faith." - -"Faith?" she echoed. - -Nodding, he went on. "Me and Flynn backed you up--stood by you through -all, didn't we?" - -"Indeed you did!" She grew rosily red under warmth of feeling. "I -shall never--" - -"An' now you allow to throw us down? For Shinn and MacCloud will -shorely tell how that they scared you an' beat us out." - -It was bad argument, poor ethics--a bald statement of his grim intention -of bending the stubborn settlers to his inflexible purpose. She felt, -however, that it would be still poorer ethics for her to desert and -disappoint these, her champions, defenders. It was one of these -peculiar situations where any course seems wrong, and if she chose that -which seemed most human, she did it with a mental reservation. She -would resign just as soon as she could persuade him to look at things -her way. - -"Of course I'll stay--to please you. But--" - -"No 'buts,'" he interrupted. "Haying begins Monday, an' by fall it'll -all be ol' hist'ry." - -But Monday brought justification of her doubt, proving that, if cowed, -the settlers were by no means conquered. Only the young Flynns attended -school, and the array of empty benches loomed in her troubled vision -like a huge face, vacant, mulishly obstinate as a blank wall, vividly -eloquent of the invincible determination that would have none of her. -Her heart sank, and when the week passed without further attendance she -gave up, handed her resignation to Flynn and Glaves in council at the -latter's cabin. - -Both, as might be expected, registered strenuous objections. "'Tain't -your fault if they cut off their nose to spite their face," Glaves -argued. And when she replied that the children would suffer, he rasped: -"What of it? 'The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children -to the fourth generation.' Ye have Scripter for that." - -"But not the sin of the stranger," she gently objected. "I have myself -to blame for the prejudice." - -Now, though neither trustee would admit her confession, both were -afflicted with a sneaking consciousness of its truth. For not only had -she offended by consorting with that public enemy, the remittance-man, -but the cause of Carter's desertion had escaped from Elinor Leslie's -indiscreet tongue. Every man, woman, and child in the country-side was -informed as to the events which led up to and followed the Ravells' -visit. Their denials, therefore, were negated by that profuseness of -expression which accentuates the truth it seeks to conceal. - -"You know it," she answered them, and opposed further argument with that -soft feminine obstinacy which wears out masculine strength. - -"But what else kin you do?" Glaves cried at last, in despair. - -"Go to Winnipeg and take a place in an office or store." - -Though she affected brightness, she could not altogether hide the -dejection, homesickness that inhered in the thought. Now that she was -to leave it, that rude cabin, with its log walls, legal patchwork, -home-made furniture, glowed with the glamours of home. Even Mrs. -Glaves's gaunt ugliness became suddenly dear in the light of an -indefinite future among strangers. - -Detecting her underlying sadness, Flynn exclaimed: "Phwat? Wurrk in a -sthore? Sell pins, naydles, an' such truck while I've a roof over me -head? Ye'd die in thim lonesome hotels. Ye 'll just come right home -wid me." - -"Likely, ain't it?" Glaves broke in, jealous for his prerogative. "In -the first place, if she goes, she ain't agoing to stop at no hotel, but -with my own sister that keeps a boarding-house on Main Street. An' if -she stays, it'll be right here, with me--eh, old woman?" - -His wife's warm assent brought Helen to tears without, however, -affecting her resolution. For the settlement would be by the ears, she -said, just as long as she stayed in it. - -"Humph!" Glaves growled. "It'll have itself be the throat afore long. -Yesterday Poole an' Danvers ran their mowers into Shinn's five-acre -swamp, an' if that don't bring that big Injin a-kiting from the tall -timber, I'm Dutch." - -She was not, however, to be moved, and after an embarrassed pause Flynn -said, hesitatingly: "Thim cities, now, is mighty ixpinsive. A lone girl -without money--ye'll let me--" - -Digging a shabby bill-book from the bottom depths of his overalls, he -precipitated a second kindly quarrel. Glaring at it, Glaves snorted, -"When she knows she kin draw on me for the vally of my last head of -stock down to the dog!" - -Having means for some months, this storm was more easily laid than that -which burst when Flynn offered to drive her in to Lone Tree. - -"An' her living with me?" Glaves stormed. - -"'Tis meself that knowed her longest," Flynn argued. - -"Humph!" Glaves sneered--"three days. Thursday she stopped at your -house coming out from Lone Tree. Sunday I saw her at meeting--went -a-purpose an' never tended sence. No, she goes with me." - -"Anyway, I knowed her longest," Flynn persisted. "But 'tis herself shall -say. Which shall it be, ma'am?" - -"Both," she laughed; and so, with a grizzled champion on either hand, -she rattled southward the following day. - -By one of those strange coincidences of ironical fate, this, the day of -her departure, occurred on the third anniversary of her first drive out -with Carter, and all things, season, sight, sound, conspired to vividly -recall that memorable occasion. Rank growths in uncut sloughs bowed -under warm winds that freighted a distant metallic rattle of many -mowers; beyond the settlements the Park Lands stretched to the -Assiniboin with only the chimneys of the burned Cree village to break -their spangled undulations. As before, they came suddenly upon the -valley, rugged, riven, with its bald, buttressing headlands, timbered -ravines; the river, writhing in giant convolutions along the level -bottoms. As before, they dropped with jolts, jerks, skidding of wheels -to the ford that now tuned its hoarse voice to a melancholy dirge in -harmony with her mood; and from the door of the log mission Father -Francis bowed his silver head in courtly farewell. - -After the valley came the "Dry Lands," the tawny plains, barren of -trees, cabin, or farmstead; finally Lone Tree impinged in that huge -monochrome, its grain-sheds reminding her, as before, of red Noah's arks -on a yellow carpet. To her the hour of departure restored the fresh, -clear vision of the stranger. The town appeared as on that first -occasion--its one scanty street of clapboard hotels and stores with -false fronts fencing the railway tracks that came spinning out of the -western horizon to flash on over the east; the wise ox-teams rolling -along the street; the squaws with ragged ponies hitched in big-wheeled -Red River carts; the cows pasturing amid tomato-cans that strewed vacant -lots; the loafers, omni-present riffraff of the small frontier, holding -down nail-kegs and cracker-boxes under store verandas. - -It was a trying drive. Every turn of the trail brought its -reminiscences; mud chimneys, the Indian graveyard, a lone coyote, -recalled the beginnings of her love, and now that she was leaving she -vividly realized how she had grown to this land of white silences, grave -winds, vast, sunwashed spaces. But if she had need of the heavy veil -that she pinned on that morning, that marvellous feminine restraint -enabled her to turn a composed face to the doctor and Jenny, who came to -the station to see her off. - -As she passed up street, the riffraff exchanged nods and winks, but Lone -Tree furnished still other champions. The store-keeper, he who had -loaded Carter's buck-board with jams and jellies, came hurrying across -the tracks with good wishes and protestations. - -"Shinn, MacCloud, Cummings--the hull gang--go off my books," he swore to -Glaves. "Not another cent's credit to keep 'em from starving." - -"They can rot in their beds for me," the doctor added. "I strike Silver -Creek from my practice." And though the train was even then whistling -for the station, Hooper, the agent, stole time for friendly greetings. - -If roughly expressed, their sympathy was at least genuine; it eased the -parting so that she was able to lean out and give them a last smile as -the train rolled by the water-tank with long, easy clickings, carrying -her away beyond their tough pale. Good enough as a farewell, it was -not, however, a success as a smile, and the woe behind its wanness -formed the subject of an indignant caucus that convened as soon as Jenny -left the platform. - -"I can't figure out jes' what Carter means," the storekeeper fretfully -exclaimed. "Granted that she throwed him that onct--the -charivari?--that business at the revival? If it had been my wife, I'd -been smelling round for--" - -"Blood!" the agent interjected; and though he had intended "trouble," -the store-keeper accepted the amendment. - -"What's the man looking for?" the doctor roared. "She has beauty, -amiability, intelligence, almost every quality that a man can desire in -a wife, yet he goes off in a pout because she falls short of the angels. -He's a damned fool. He ought to be--" - -"Aisy, aisy wid ye." Flynn stemmed the tide of wrath. "'Tis no -throuble at all to condimn whin a purty girl's at t'other ind of the -argymint. She's sweet, an' I'll break the face av the man as says she -isn't good. But--give the man toime. Let be till we know that he's -heard av the rhuctions. Thin, if he does nothing--" - -"Well," the doctor interrupted, "he'll hear, all right--from me, this -very night." - -"Me, too," the store-keeper added. - -"An' don't forget to give him partickler h--l!" the agent called after -as they strolled away. - -Nor did they. Dipping his pen in scorn, the doctor opened his epistle -with a timely question as to the exact number and kinds of fool that -Carter considered himself, and finished with a spirit that transcended -even Glaves's difficult requirements. Equally thorough in his -beginnings, a rush of business prevented the store-keeper from making an -end that evening; but his default had its advantages in that he was thus -enabled to deliver the remainder, _viva voce_, to Carter himself, when -he stepped off the train next morning. Served hot, with good frontier -adjectives sizzling among the nouns and articles, his opinion gained the -admiring attention of Hooper, the agent, who stood ready to offer advice -and assistance. - -For his part, Carter listened quietly until the storekeeper paused for -breath. Then he turned to the agent. "If you'd like five minutes with -my character and attainments, don't be bashful! I've got it coming. -After that please oblige with a little information on this charivari? I -only heard yesterday morning of that revival through Bender's coming -into camp." - -As he listened, his natural sternness deepened to dark austerity, then -fluxed in sad pity as the store-keeper told of Helen's departure. -Murmuring "Poor thing!--poor little thing!" he asked for her address. - -His face fell when the store-keeper answered: "You'll have to go to -Glaves for that. The doc' might have it, but him an' Miss Jenny went -north this morning to settle up her father's affairs." Noting Carter's -disappointment, he kindly added: "You kin drive my sorrels. They're a -third faster than the livery teams. On'y, remember they're fresh off -the grass." - -"I'll _try_ not to misuse them," Carter answered, brightening, a remark -that plentifully illustrates his impatient feeling. - -Agent and store-keeper helped him hitch; and as he headed the sorrels -out on the Silver Creek trail--the trail that for him, as for Helen, was -one long heartache--the agent drew a deduction from his sombre -sternness. - -"I heard that MacCloud an' Cummings were back. Je-hosh-a-phat! There'll -be something doing if they cross his track." - - -Stepping out of his stable, after feeding the noon oats next day, Glaves -"lifted up his eyes," in biblical phrase, and saw Carter "a long way -off." A hot morning at the hay, and the loss of two sections of his -mower-sickle by impact with a willow snag, did not tend to alleviate his -natural crustiness. As he recognized the tall figure behind the -sorrels, the hoar of his fifty winters seemed to settle in the lines of -his weathered visage; his eye took the steely sparkle of river ice; his -nod, when Carter reined in opposite, was curt as his answer. - -"Your wife's address? Yes, I know it." - -Forewarned by the store-keeper of the old man's bitterness, Carter was -not surprised. "Meaning that you won't give it to me?" - -"Not till I know as she wants you to have it." - -Tone and manner were superlatively irritating, but the man had taken -blood on his soul in Helen's defence, and Carter spoke quietly. "Don't -you allow that she's a right to decide for herself?" - -"Now, ain't that exac'ly what I said?" - -It was not, but contradiction would merely inflame his obstinacy. At a -loss how to proceed, Carter switched the heads, one by one, from a patch -of tall brown pig-weeds, using his left hand, for the right was roughly -tied up in his handkerchief. On his part Glaves looked steadily past -him. - -It was a beautiful day--sensuous, soft, one of the golden days when warm -winds flirt among rustling grasses breathing the incense of smiling -flowers. Heat hung in quivering waves along the horizon like an -emanation from the hot, prolific earth over whose bosom birds, -bumblebees, the little beasts of the prairies, came and went on errands -of love and business with songs and twitterings. And there, in the -midst of this joy of life, the grim old man bent frowning brows on -Carter, who was lost in bitter meditation. - -He was laboring under an unhappy sense of error, for his contumacy, -determined absence, was not altogether a product of hurt pride. As he -himself had dissolved their relations, it was Helen's privilege to renew -them, and he had waited, yearning for her word. But now that he was -dragged under the harrows of remorse, in an agony of pity for her, he -stood before Glaves as in the presence of Nemesis, convicted of a huge -mistake. - -The initiative, after all, had lain with him. If he had owned to his -fault, had apologized for his summary desertion, she could have been -trusted to do the rest. Now he doubted that he was too late, for it was -but reasonable to suppose that the trustee's determined opposition had -origin with her. He squared his big shoulders to this burden of his own -packing. - -"Will you forward a letter?" - -Frowning, Glaves answered without looking at him, "You kin leave your -address."' - -"But you will forward it?" - -"If she wants it." - -Carter flushed, but checked a sharp answer. "You ain't extending too -much grace to a sinner." - -"Any less than you extended her? What d' you expect of me that saw her -name dragged in the mud, herself insulted--that took a life to save her -body from violence? G--d d-- you!" His pent-up feelings exploded, and -for three minutes thereafter hot speech bubbled like vitriol through his -clinched teeth in scathing denunciation of Carter's remissness. - -"Part of what you say being true, we'll pass the rest," the latter said, -when the trustee had drained his phials of wrath. "Now--without -conceding your right to withhold her address--will you forward some -money?" - -Glaves stared. He had expected a blow, a violent quarrel, at least; -nay, had lusted for it. But he was too much of a man himself to mistake -a just imperturbability for fear, while the mention of money checked his -anger by switching his ideas. Jealous for her honor, he looked his -suspicion. "Whose money?" But if accent and tone declared against the -acceptance of favors, he took the proffered greenbacks after Carter -explained that they covered her share of the cattle he and Morrill had -owned in common--took them, that is, with a proviso. - -"Let me see," he mused, counting five of ten bills of one-hundred-dollar -denomination. "You'd forty head of stock when Morrill died. Five -hundred covers her share. Take these back." And to further argument he -sternly answered, "I don't allow that she's looking for any presents -from you." - -"No, I don't allow that she is." - -Sadness of look and tone caused Glaves to glance up quickly, but he did -not relax in his grimness up to the moment that, having left his -address, Carter drove away. Then a shade of doubt crept into his steel -eyes. "If it had been myself--" he muttered; then as Helen's parting -smile recurred in memory, he added: "No, damn him! Let him suffer!" But -this was not the end. Pausing in his doorway as he went in to dinner, -he saw the buckboard, small as a fly, crawl over a distant knoll, and by -some association of ideas remembered Carter's hand and wondered why it -was bandaged. And when he learned from Poole and Danvers, who called -round for their mail that evening, his first small doubt was raised -almost to the dimension of regret. - -Since the charivari, Glaves's opinion of the remittance-man--as a -fighting animal, at least--had risen above zero, and he lent first an -indulgent, then a rapt ear to the boys' story. As he himself had -prophesied, the piracy of the five-acre swamp brought Shinn out from his -hiding, but the latter's evil fate arranged matters so that as he -descended upon the remittance buccaneers from one end of the swamp, -Carter appeared on the Lone Tree trail which cat-a-cornered the other. -The result bubbled forth from the mouth of first one boy, then the -other, in eager interruptions. - -"Shade of my granny!" Danvers swore. "You never saw such a fight!" - -"No preliminaries," Poole declared. "Carter just leaped from his buggy -and went for him like a cat after a mouse." - -"And little good it did him. He might have been a gopher in the paws of -a grizzly." - -"Lay like a dead man for a long half-hour--" - -"And looked like a snake that had mixed with a streak of lightning." - -"Blind, battered, bruised, we carried him home on his shield--that is, -on our hay-rake--" - -"And that poor squalid wife of his looked rather disgusted when she -found that he wasn't dead." - -While they thus poured the tale of Shinn's discomfiture into Glaves's -thirsty ears, Carter rattled steadily on towards Lone Tree. Passing -Flynn's, he had been tempted to put in, but remembered that the Irishman -would be out at the hay, and so ran on and by the one person who could -have furnished an approximation of Helen's address. For she had merely -promised to write Jenny as soon as she was settled, as he had learned -when he met the doctor, back-trailing alone, early that morning. - -"But you'll surely find her at one of the hotels!" the agent called to -him, on the platform of the freight-train that carried him away at -midnight. - -But Helen had gone straight to the trustee's sister. And having wasted -two days scanning hotel registers, wandering the streets, he concluded -that perhaps she had changed her mind and gone straight through to her -friends back East. Charging his friends and financial backers to keep -on with the search, however, he returned to his labors in that -unenviable condition of mind which romanticist writers describe as -"broken-hearted." - -In a city of twenty thousand it ought not to be so very difficult to -locate a young lady whose style and beauty drew the eyes of the street. -But if the search failed, the cause inhered in other reasons than lack -of diligence--in a reason that largely accounted for Glaves's reluctance -to give her address. Sick at heart, hopeless for the future, she had -sunk her surname with the bitter past; resumed her maiden name while -keeping the married title. Even with Glaves's sister, a big, -good-natured woman, she passed as a widow. - - - - - *XXV* - - *THE SUNKEN GRADE* - - -The "Ragged Lands!" Seamed, rugged, broken, gloomy with dark spruce, -sterile as a barren woman, they cumber the earth from Lake Nipissing a -thousand miles westward to the edge of the prairies, and in all their -weary length no stretch of meadow-land occurs. Pock-marked with sloughs, -muskegs, black morasses, peppered with sand-hills that rise suddenly -like eruptive boils in the sparse beard of its dwarf-growths, it is a -wicked country, and was held accursed by trappers and Jesuit fathers -who, of old, _portaged_ or paddled upon its borders. Yet in -construction days men poured into its dark environs; one may still see -Carter's camps, moss-grown, roofless, rotting by the right of way, for -his line split a fifty-mile breadth from the western verge of that -mighty forest. - -On the day after Carter's return from Winnipeg the westering sun gilded -a long scar, brown with the sere of felled trees, that shore thirty -miles of forest. Ten more miles and this, his right of way, would -debouch on the Park Lands, a day's drive southward from Silver Creek; at -its other end fifty miles of prairie grading would carry it down to the -American border. Northerly, the cut was masked in rolling smoke of -burning brush; but where, farther south, the spruce mantle had been torn -from the bosom of mother earth, it gaped yellow as a gangrened wound. -Over this earth-sore men and teams swarmed with the buzz and movement of -flies, coming and going about a steam-digger that bit hungry mouthfuls -from the bowels of a sand-hill and spat them, with hoarse coughing, upon -a train of flat-cars. Beyond them a pile-driver sputtered nervously -upon a lean trestle; and still farther south a track gang laid and -spiked rails with furious energy, adding their quota of noise to the -roar that combined with heat and dust to produce a miniature inferno. - -Dipping still lower, the sun poked a golden finger down a thin -survey-line that slit the forest at the head of the right of way, and -touched into flame the yellow head of a young man who sat on a log near -Carter. There slim poplar-brake enclosed a mossy dell, into which the -frenzy of work and noise came faintly as the hum of a passing bee. It -was, indeed, so cool and pleasant that the surveyor shrugged unwillingly -when the advancing shadows emphasized Carter's remark that it was "time -to be moving." - -"What a demon of unrest!" he laughed. "Can't keep still for five -minutes." - -His mock disgust drew Carter's smile. "That's all very well--for you. -When your transit is cased, you're done. I have a few hundred men to -look after." - -"Oh, confound them!" the other said. "I'll never make a philosopher of -you." And as, shouldering his transit, he followed, he commented -humorously on Carter's tiresome energy, affirming that he was reminded -of a steam-engine that had slipped its governors. "Couldn't be more -grovellingly industrious if you were qualifying for a headline on a -child's copy-book. Early to bed, early to rise, makes your boss -healthy, wealthy, and wise," he misquoted. And as, a few minutes later, -they came out upon wood-choppers who were driving the right of way into -the forest, he grimaced, "More misguided zeal." - -For all his sarcasm, his eyes betrayed his appreciation, and as, -pausing, they looked on, his face lit up with professional pride. -Following the choppers, sawyers were cutting sizable timber into logs, -piling small trees with the brush; behind them a stumping outfit -practised rough dentistry upon the road-bed. All were putting in the -last "licks" of a good day's work; the air whistled of falling trees, -hummed to the ringing saws; the woods echoed laughter, shouts, cheery -curses. - -"Good boys," Carter murmured. "Regular whales. Jest eat it up, don't -they?" - -"Peculiar idiosyncrasy." The surveyor resumed his chaffing. "They -ought to have eased up while you were away. Can't account for it, -unless--yes, it's beans! Beans, sir! You feed them beans and they work -or--die. Query: What effect would a bean diet have on a philosopher? -Ugh! I must avoid them." - -"No"--Carter indicated a figure, gigantic in the loom of the smoke, -"it's not beans; it's Bender. Without him we'd have plenty converts to -your theory." - -"And now tired nature pities them." - -In their coincidence, the last red ray might have signalled Bender's -shrill whistle, or _vice versa_. Anyway, sudden silence fell like a -mantle over the clearing. While choppers and sawyers cached tools under -brush away from rusting dews, teamsters dropped bows and yokes, and all -followed the patient ox-teams down the right of way. - -"Joking aside," the surveyor said, as they fell in behind, "what has -life for these fellows? Ill-fed, worse clothed, only an occasional -spree breaks the monotony of grinding toil." - -Carter's nod was non-committal. "They work hard--yes, but then work is -only terrible to the young and shiftless; your grown man loves it." - -"If congenial." - -"Generally is. You see, there's always something that a fellow thinks -he can do a bit better than any one else--Bill, there, planes his -stumps; Ole, that big Swede, is chain lightning on a cant-hook; Michigan -Red rides a log down a rapid like a ballet-dancer, and has Jehu beat out -on the reins; Big Hans lifts more'n any other man in camp. Summing it, -from whip-cracking to stable-cleaning every job has its professor, who -gets a heap of fun out of proving his title. Looking a bit closer, -these chaps get more sunshine, fresh air, and sleep than your city -workers, and if the grub is rough they ain't bothered none with -indigestion. Hans finds a flavor in his beans that your big financial -gun doesn't get out of his canvas-back. As for amusement, the regular -lumber-jack does blow a year's salary on a week's bust, as you say; but -most of these are farmers, some of 'em neighbors of mine. If they're -rushed in summer they have time to burn in winter, and what of socials, -dances, picnics, they strike a fair balance with pleasure." - -"But what is ahead of them?" - -Carter shrugged. "Death, of course; in the mean time, hard work, harder -living, a family, and a mortgage to keep 'em from oversleep. But -they'll breathe clean and live clean, work in the sun and outlive two -generations of city people. Barring accidents, they'll average -fourscore years, and so, when the last word is said, I don't know but -that happiness lies down instead of up the ladder." - -The surveyor curiously studied his thoughtful face. "You are climbing?" - -But Carter was equal to the contradiction. "We was talking of -averages--" - -"_Were_," the other interrupted. - -Grimacing, Carter repeated: "_Were_ talking of averages. The exception -gets his fun climbing, and don't find out how much of a fool he is till -he looks down from the top." - -"_Doesn't_," the other put in, and Carter resaid the word. - -The corrections sprang from a compact that was now as old as their -acquaintance. A graduate in engineering, the young fellow was widely -read and cultured far beyond the needs of his profession, and as they -talked, smoking, in their office-tent of evenings, his allusions to and -illustrations from the realms of science, literature, art had given -Carter glimpses of Helen's world, a universe in which touch, taste, -smell, sight, and other things gave place to feeling, memory, -perception. And so he had been stimulated to conscious attempts at -improvement. - -"I feel like a two-year-old!" he had exclaimed one evening early in -their acquaintance. "I 'd like to know more of that. D' you suppose I -could get that book in town? An' say, if you catch me straddling the -traces--manners, speech, an' so forth--I wish you'd lam me one. Of -course I'm pretty set, but if I could just tone down a bit on a few of -the big things, the little ones might slip by unnoticed." - -In the nature of things a construction-camp is bound to suffer a chronic -drouth of news, and in default of other subjects Carter's marital -troubles had received exhaustive and analytical treatment at the hands -of the Silver Creek men and others. Filtering through many strata, -enough of the gossip had reached the surveyor to inform him of the -motive under this rough appeal, and he readily consented. So, in their -talks thereafter, he had trimmed out the wilder growths of Carter's -speech, giving rule and reason, for, as he laughingly assured him, his -big pupil had an uncanny appetite for underlying law. - -"Now 'tain't reasonable to suppose that you have to learn all the -individual cases," he would say, when the surveyor tripped him on some -expression; "what's the law of it?" And he would offer humorous -opinions on the eccentricities of the tongue. "The darn language seems -to have grown from wild seed, an' though Lindley Murray--ain't that his -name?--lopped a bit here an' pruned a bit there, he couldn't straighten -the knarls and twists in the trunks. An' I don't know but that it's as -well that way Leave them grammarians alone, an' they'd clip an' trim the -language till it was tame as the cypress hedges that my old aunt uster -shape into crowing roosters, gillypots, an' pilaster pillars at home -back East." In saying which he touched a profound etymological truth -that is altogether ignored by the scientific inventors of universal -languages. - -One who had not seen him for some months--Helen, for instance--could not -have failed, this evening, to notice how his faithful delving in that -wild orchard had begun to bring forth fruit in his speech. Evincing -fewer "aint's," it had more "ings," and even attained, on occasion, to -correct usage in "number" of verbs. Equally forcible, as full of curt -figures, its epigrammatic quality had gained rather than lost by better -expression. - -The silence which had fallen between them endured till they came in -sight of the camp, a string of tents and log-cabins under the eaves of -the forest. Then the surveyor pointed out a girl who was watching the -tired stream from the door of the nearest tent. - -"Why, there's Dorothy! She threatened to make the chief bring her down, -but I didn't think she'd make it. Come along and I'll introduce you." - -As, however, he mended his pace, Carter fell behind, and the sadness -which had become habitual to his face deepened. He had heard the young -fellow speak of this girl, his _fiancee_; and though in color and -appearance she was the opposite of Helen, the swish of her skirts as she -came to meet them, suggestion of perfume, the hundred elusive delicacies -that make up a well-bred girl's personality, recalled his wife and -oppressed him with a vivid sense of loss. - -Her voice, rich and low in its tones as Helen's, strengthened the -impression. "Dad said 'No,'" she laughed, after the introduction. -"But--" - -"Wilful woman will have her way," a voice declared from the interior of -the tent; then the chief engineer, a hale man of fifty, appeared in the -doorway. "Mosquitoes, alkali water, nothing would scare her." He was -going on with inquiries of the health of a bridge that had developed -rheumatic tendencies in its feet, when she laughingly interrupted: - -"Come, dad, no business till after supper. I have already scraped -acquaintance with the cook, and he says we are to come at once. So run -along, little boys, and get ready." - -"Wash our dirty faces, to put it plainly," the surveyor echoed her happy -laugh. "Be it known unto you, fair lady, that ablutions are held to be -effeminate, unnecessary, if not immoral, in construction work. However, -in view of your hypersensitiveness, we will do violence to our -inclinations. Come on, Carter--we for the tub." - -But from a dozen yards she called him back. "This is the man you wrote -me of? I knew him at once. What a splendid fellow!" - -"Gorgeous!" he returned her whisper. "His wife must be a queer sort." - -"Not necessarily." She added, with thoughtful intuition: "The -possibilities are so many. Your friend is handsome and has a good face, -but we girls are more complex than our mothers. While they were -satisfied with good temper and good provision, we demand sympathy of -taste and habit; that we touch without friction at a hundred points of -contact. Tall as Mr. Carter is, he may fall short of such a standard." - -Bending, her lover gazed admiringly into her earnest eyes. "Such a -little wisehead! And did I pass in this difficult examination?" - -Carter's back was turned, the cook-house door had just closed on the -last teamster, her father had gone back to his calculations, so her -answer was sweet as satisfactory. - -When, half an hour later, the four entered the cook-house, two cookees -were laying the table under one eagle eye of the cook, the other being -on a roast that he was liberally basting. "Hain't you got no nose?" he -answered Carter's question; but he smiled as, sniffing its rich odor, -Dorothy said: "It's venison! And I'm so hungry!" - -"Sure!" he corroborated. "Cree hunter brought in a quarter of moose -this afternoon." - -Pleased with her discernment, he seated her at the head of a table which -he himself had scoured with sand to a snowy whiteness while the cookees -were grinding a summer's tarnish from iron knives and spoons. Her tin -plate reflected a smile that he would willingly have paid for in turkey -and truffles, but lacking these, he served baked potatoes with the -venison, hot biscuit, cake a hand's-breadth thick, and with a flourish -set the crowning delicacy of camp life, a can of condensed cream, beside -her tin coffee-cup. Then he packed the cookees outside to peel the -morrow's potatoes that her appetite might not suffer from their admiring -glances, an act which they classified as tyranny and ascribed to evil -motives. - -"She's a right smart gal," he added, after imparting a few privacies -anent their birth and breeding from the door-step. "None a' your -picking sort. Knows good cooking when she sees it, she does." Then he -left them to digest a last piece of information that the evolution of -their ancestors had been arrested in a low and bestial stage. - -That supper figured as an epoch in Carter's life, because it marked a -definite conscious change in his feeling towards his wife. With all men -thought is more or less chaotic. Filtering slowly from feeling under -pressure of experience, it remains fluid, turgid, until some specific -act--it may be of a very ordinary nature--clears and precipitates it -into the moulds of fixed opinion. So, though material of a sounder, -more reasonable judgment of Helen had been gathering in his mind these -months, injured pride had held it in abeyance--in suspension, as it -were--until now that recent disappointment had left him peculiarly -susceptible to impression, a resolvent was added; that occurred which -precipitated his thought. - -It took form in Michigan Red, who entered with another teamster and sat -down at the opposite table. The task that delayed them had sharpened -appetite, and their attack on the food the cook set before them was -positively wolfish. Using fingers as much or more than forks, they -shovelled greasy beans into their mouths with knives, as stokers feed a -furnace; and as they bolted masses of pork, washed whole biscuits down -with gulps of coffee, Carter's glance wandered between them and the -delicate girl at his side. Here, indeed, was one of the "points of -contact" of her intuitive wisdom. Once before he had seen, realized it. -But whereas he had thrust the thought away the night that he watched -Michigan Red eat in the lumber-camp, he now gave it free admittance, -mentally writhed as he realized how this and other gaucheries must have -ground on Helen's sensitive mental surfaces. Fascinated by their -gluttony, he watched until dulled eyes and heavy, stertorous breathing -signalled repletion and the close of their meal. - -On her part, Dorothy was quietly observing him. Given such knowledge as -the Silver Creek teamsters had sown through the camp, it would have been -easy for her to guess the rest--if his conduct had borne out her -surmise. But he had learned so much and so quickly under the stings of -injured pride that observation failed to reveal any wide departures from -the conventional. She had to give it up--for the present. - -"What a strange man!" - -Her whisper dissipated his painful reflections, and, looking up, he saw -that, after lighting his pipe with a coal from the stove, Michigan Red -was surveying them with cool effrontery through the tobacco smoke. His -fiery beard split in a sneer as Carter asked if he had finished supper. -But he did not take the hint nor move when ordered to call Bender. - -"_Mister_ Bender"--he spat at the title--"is down at the grading-camp." - -"I said for you to call him." Carter's tone, in its very gentleness, -caused the girl to look quickly so she caught his queer expression. -Compounded of curiosity, interest, expectation, his glance seemed to -flicker above, below, around the red teamster, to enfold, wrap him with -its subtle questioning. Impressed more than she could have been by -threat or command, she waited--she knew not for what--oppressed by the -loom of imminent danger. - -But it was not in the teamster's book to disobey--just then. Lingering -to pick another coal, he sauntered down the room under flow of that -curious, flickering glance, and closed the door behind him with a bang. -Sharp as the crack of a gun, Dorothy half expected to see smoke curling -up to the massive roof-logs. But though her father and lover looked -their surprise, Carter resumed his eating, and there was no comment -until he excused himself a few minutes later. - -Tugging his gray beard, the chief engineer then turned to the surveyor. -"Why doesn't he fire that fellow?" - -Shrugging, the young fellow passed the question up to the cook. "You've -known them longest." - -Thus tapped, the cook turned on a flow of information, appending his own -theory of Carter's patience to a short and unflattering history of -Michigan Red. "You see, Red thought he was the better man from the -beginning, an' it was just up to the boss to give him fair chance to -prove it. As for him, he likes the excitement. You've seen a cat play -with a mouse? Well--an' when the cat does jump--" - -"Good-bye mouse," the surveyor finished. - -The cook's significant nod filled Dorothy with astonishment. From the -social heights upon which the accident of birth had placed her, she had -looked down upon the laboring-classes, deeming them rude, simple, -unsophisticated. Yet here she found complex moods, a vendetta conducted -with Machiavellian subtlety, a drastic code that compelled a man to -cherish his enemy till he had had opportunity to strike. - -The knowledge helped her to a conclusion which she stated as they walked -back to her father's tent. "Such pride! I understand now why he left -_her_. Just fancy his keeping on that man?" - -"Damned nonsense, I call it," her father growled. "That fellow will make -trouble for him yet." - -The prediction amounted to prophecy in view of a conversation then -proceeding in the bunk-house. As Michigan's table-mate had fully -reported the scene at supper, the teamsters were ready with a fire of -chaff when he stumbled over the dark threshold after delivering Carter's -message. - -"Been dinin' in fash'n'ble sassiety, Red?" a man questioned. - -"Nope!" another laughed. "Voylent colors ain't considered tasty any -more, so the boss fired him out 'cause his hair turned the chief's gal -sick." - -Hoarse chuckling accompanied the teamster's answering profanity, but -when, after roundly cursing themselves, Carter, the surveyor, chief -engineer, he began on Dorothy, laughter ceased and Big Hans called a -stop. - -"That's right." A voice seconded Hans's objection. "We ain't stuck on -the boss any more'n you are, Red; but this gal isn't no kin of his'n. -Leave her alone." - -"Sure!" the first man chimed in. "An' if he's feeling his oats jes' -now, he'll be hit the harder when we spring our deadfall. Did you sound -the graders to-day? Will they--" - -"Shet up!" Michigan hissed. "That big mouth o' yourn spits clean across -the camp to the office." And thereafter the conversation continued in -sinister whispers that soon merged in heavy snoring. Silence and -darkness wrapped the camp. - - -Awaking while it was still dark, the camp rubbed sleepy eyes and looked -out, shivering, on smouldering smudges. Outside, the air whined of -mosquitoes. At the long hay-racks horses snorted and pawed frantically -under the winged torture; patient oxen uttered mained lowings. Growling -and grumbling, the camp distributed itself--teamsters to feed and -rebuild smudges, choppers and sawyers to the grindstone and -filing-benches. It was a cold, dank world. Pessimism prevailed to the -extent that a man needed to walk straitly, minding his own business, if -he would avoid quarrel. But optimism came with dawn--teamsters hissed -cheerfully over their currying, saw-filers and grinders indulged in -snatches of song--reaching a climax with the breakfast-call. When, half -an hour later, Dorothy appeared in the cook-house doorway, the camp had -spilled its freight of men and teams into the forest. - -Warned by the shadow, the cook looked up and saw her in Stetson hat, -short skirt, high-laced shoes, a sunlit vision with the freshness of the -morning upon its cheeks. "God bless you! Come right in," he exclaimed. -"Your daddy an' Mr. Hart hev' gone down line. Devil's Muskeg got hungry -las' night an' swallered ten thousand yards of gradin'." - -As yet she knew nothing of those treacherous sinks that gulp grades, -trestles, and the reputations of their builders as a frog swallows -flies, and he went on, answering her puzzled look: "Morass, you know, -swamp with quicksand foundation that goes clean down to China. Nope, -'tain't Mr. Carter's loss. He ain't such a fool as to go an' load a -muskeg down with clay and rock. An Easterner had it on a sub-contract, -an' though Mr. Carter warned him, he reckoned he could make it bear a -grade on brush hurdles. Crowed like a Shanghai rooster because it -carried trains for a week. - -"Oh, I don't know," he commented upon her pity for the luckless -contractor. "You kain't do nothin' with them Easterners. He was -warned. Besides," he vengefully added, "he shedn't ha' come crowing -over us. More coffee, miss?" - -Leaving the cook-house, a shadow fell between her and the sun, and -Carter gave her good-morning. "Breaks the poor devil," he supplemented -the cook's information, "and bothers us. Cuts off our communications. -We shall have to move the outfits back to prairie grading till they are -re-established. I'm going down there--now, if you'd like a hand-car -ride?" - -Would she? In five minutes she was speeding along under urge of ten -strong arms, over high trestles which gave her sudden livid gleams of -water far below, through yellow cuts, across hollow-sounding bridges, -always between serried ranks of sombre spruce. Sometimes the car rolled -in between long lines of men who were tamping gravel under the ties. -Rough fellows at the best, they had herded for months in straw and dirt, -seeing nothing daintier than their unlovely selves, and as they were not -the kind that mortifies the flesh, the girl was much embarrassed by the -fire of eyes. Apart from that, she hugely enjoyed the ride. With feet -almost touching the road-bed, she got all there was of the motion, -besides most of the wind that blew her hair into a dark cloud and set -wild roses blooming in her cheeks. - -She gained, too, a new view-point of Carter, who chatted gayly, -pointing, explaining, as though they were merely out for pleasure and -another had not been just added to the heavy cares that burdened his -broad shoulders. She learned more of the life, its hardship, comedy, -tragedy, in half an hour's conversation, than she could have obtained -for herself in a year's experience. - -These different elements sometimes mixed--as when he indicated a -blackened excavation. "See that? A man was sitting on the stump that -was blasted out there. Reckon he got sort of tired of the world," he -replied to her horrified question, "and wanted a good start for the -next." Then, easily philosophical, quietly discursive, he wandered -along, touching the suicide's motives. There had been different -theories--drink, religion, a girl--but he himself inclined to aggravated -unsociability. The sombre forest, with its immensity of sad, environing -space, had translated mere moroseness into confirmed hypochondria. He -had so bored the stumping outfit, to which he belonged, with pessimistic -remarks on things in general that, in self-defence, they threw something -at him whenever he opened his mouth; and so, bottled up, his gloom -accumulated until, in an unusually dismal moment, he placed a full box -of dynamite under a stump and sat down to await results. - -"Why didn't some one pull him off?" she cried. - -His answer was pregnant. "Short fuse. Anyway, the boys didn't feel any -call to mix in his experiments--especially as he swore a blue streak at -them till the stump lifted." - -"Horrible!" she breathed. - -"Just what they said." He solemnly misunderstood her. "They never -heard such language. 'Twas dreadfully out of place at a funeral." - -"Oh--I didn't mean that!" Then, considering his serious gravity, -"Was--was there--" - -"Pretty clean." He relieved her of the remainder of the question. -"Mostly translated." - -Incredulous, she glanced from him to his men and received grisly -confirmation, for one thrust out a grimy finger to show a horseshoe -ring. "I picked it up on the track, miss, forty rod from -the--obseq'ses. Didn't allow he'd want it again." - -Shuddering, she turned back to Carter, but before she could make further -comment the car rolled from a cut out on the edge of the Devil's Muskeg. - -She thought him cold-blooded until, that evening, she learned from her -friend, the cook, that he had been caught on the edge of the blast as he -rushed to save the man and had been thrown a hundred feet. A little -disappointed by his apparent callousness, she joined her father and -lover, who, with the contractor, stood looking out over the muskeg. -Sterile, flat, white with alkali save where black slime oozed from the -sunken grade, it stretched a long mile on either side of the right of -way. Around its edges skeleton trees thrust blanched limbs upward -through the mud, and beyond this charnel forest loomed the omnipresent -spruce. In spring-time its quaking depths would have opened under a -fox's light padding, but the summer's sun had dried the surface until it -carried a team--which fact had lured the contractor to his financial -doom. A fat, gross man, he stood mopping his brow and wildly -gesticulating towards the half-mile of rails that, with their ties, lay -like the backbone of some primeval lizard along the mud, calling heaven -and the chief engineer to witness that this calamity was beyond the -prevision of man. - -"'Jedgment of God,' it's termed in government contrac's," he exclaimed -to the chief, who, however, shrugged at such blackening of Providence. - -"Well, Mr. Buckle," he answered, as Carter came up, "the judgment was -delivered against you, not us." - -"Yes, yes!" the man grovellingly assented. "I know--mine's the loss. -But you gentlemen orter give me a chance to make it up building round -this cursed mud-hole?" - -"Round what?" - -He turned scowlingly upon Carter. "This mud-hole, I said." With a -greasy sneer, he added: "But mebbe you kin build across it?" - -"I can." - -"What?" he screamed his angry surprise. "Why, hell! Wasn't it you that -tol' me it wouldn't carry a grade?" - -"I said it wouldn't carry yours." - -His quiet assurance gave the contractor pause, while engineer and -surveyor looked their surprise. "Going to drive piles down to China?" -The contractor grew hysterically sarcastic. "You'll need a permit from -Li Hung Chang. What do you know about grades, anyway? I was building -this railroad while you was wearing long clothes." - -"Likely." Carter's easy drawl set the others a-grin and caused Dorothy -to hide her smile in her handkerchief. "But you ain't out of yours yet. -A yearling baby wouldn't try to stack rock on top of mud. But that -isn't the question. D' you allow to finish the contract?" - -"Think I'm a fool?" the man rasped. - -"'Tain't always polite to state one's thoughts. But--do you?" And when -the other tendered a surly negative, he turned to the engineer. "You -hear, sir? And now I file my bid." - -The chief, however, looked his doubt. As yet engineering science -offered no solution for the muskeg problem, and this was not the first -grade he had seen sacrificed to a theory. "Are you serious?" - -"As a Methodist sermon," Carter answered his grave question. Then, -drawing him aside, he pulled a paper from his pocket--an estimate for -the work. It was dated two weeks back, prevision that caused the chief -to grimly remark: "Pretty much like measuring a living man for his -coffin, wasn't it? But look here, Carter! I'd hate to see you go broke -on this hole. I doubt--and your figure is far too low. What's your -plan?" - -"I'm going to make a sawdust fill with waste from the Portage Mills." - -Whistling, the chief looked his admiration, then grinned, the idea was -so ludicrous in its simplicity. For, all said, the problem resolved -itself into terms of specific gravity--iron sinks and wood floats in -water; and the muskeg which swallowed clay would easily carry a sawdust -bank. Moreover, the idea was thoroughly practicable. Situated five -miles from Winnipeg, the Portage Mills were the largest in the province -and their owners would willingly part with the refuse that cumbered -their yards. - -"You've got it!" he cried, slapping his thigh. - -"That's not all. If old Brass Bowels--" Noticing that the contractor -was looking their way, he finished in a whisper, the significance of -which caused the chief's grizzled brows to rise till lost in the roots -of his hair. - -"You'll break camp--?" he questioned. - -"To-morrow. Build a spur into the mills, then start prairie grading at -the American line and run north. Ought to make a junction about the time -the sink is filled." - -And this he did. The few miles of spur-track being quickly built, a -yellow tide of sawdust was soon flowing out to the Devil's Muskeg, where -Bender's wood gang directed its flow. At first there was great argument -about this new material, some holding that one might as well try to -build a road-bed with feathers. But it proved itself. Tamping hard as -clay, it had greater resilience, and soon the twisted track rose like a -mained serpent from the slimy clutch of the devil. Yes, miles of -flat-cars, boarded up till they loomed big as houses, moved between mill -and slough through that summer, and no one dreamed of their slow -procession having other significance up to the moment that Helen heard -newsboys crying a special in the hot streets-- - -"Monopoly refuses new line a crossing. Section gangs tear up Carter's -diamond." - - - - - *XXVI* - - *WINNIPEG* - - -By that time Helen had shaken down to a life that was new as -strange--though not without travail; shaking is always uncomfortable. - -Coming in to the city, a natural nervousness--that indefinite -apprehension which assails the stoutest under the frown of new -adventures--had been accentuated by heart-sickness from her late -experiences, and was justified by some to come. She viewed its distant -spires very much as an outlaw might contemplate far-off hostile towers. -Entering from the west, as she did, one sees taller buildings poke, one -by one, from under the flat horizon. For the city sits by the Red -River--smoothest, most treacherous of streams--in the midst of vast -alluvial plains, its back to the "Ragged Lands," facing the setting sun. -North, south, east, and west of it they stretch, these great flat -plains. Vividly emerald in spring-time, June shoots their velvet with -chameleon florescences that glow and blaze with the seasons, fix in -universal gold, then fade to purest white. Dark, dirty, the city stands -out on the soft snow-curtain like a sable blot on an ermine mantle. -Withal it is a clean city, for if the black muck of its unpaved streets -cakes laboring wagons and Red River carts to the hubs after spring -thaws, the dirt is all underfoot. No manufactures foul the winds that -sweep in from boreal seas with the garnered essences of an empire of -flowers. - -Purely agricultural, then, in its functions, the bulk of its burgesses -were, as might be expected, store-keepers, implement men, bankers, -lawyers, land agents, all who serve or prey upon the farmer; for there, -also, lurked the usurers, the twenty-per-cent. Shylocks, fat spiders -whose strangling webs enmeshed every township from the Rockies to the -Red. Spring, fall, or winter, grist failed not in their dark mills, -which ground finer and faster than those of the gods. Scattering their -evil seed on the dark days, it was their habit to reap in the sunshine, -competing for the last straw with their fellows, the business men, in -their single season of profit--Harvest. For in summer the city drowsed -amid green wheat seas that curved with the degrees over the western -world; it slept, nodding, till the wheat, its life-blood, came in huge -arterial gushes to gorge its deflated veins. - -Thus Helen found it--asleep under the midsummer sun. Walking to her -destination, she met few people; after the hotel 'buses rattled by, the -streets were deserted save for an occasional buck-board or slow ox-team -chewing the peaceful cud at the wooden sidewalk. When, later, she -walked those hot streets on that most wearisome of occupations, the -search for an occupation, she became familiar with the city's more -intimate topography--the huge concrete foundations, vacant, gaping as -though at the folly which planned them and their superstructures, the -aerial castles that blew up with the boom; the occasional brick blocks -that raised hot red heads proudly above surrounding buildings, the -river, with its treacherous peace; old Fort Garry, which she repeopled -with governors, commissioners, factors, and trappers of the Hudson Bay -Company. - -Also she grew sensitive to its varied life, easily distinguishing -between emigrants, who were injected by daily spurts into the streets, -the city's veins, from the old-timers--remittance-men, in yellow cords -and putties; trappers from Keewatin, Athabasca, the Great Slave Lake, in -fringed moose-skins; plethoric English farmers, or gaunt Canadian -settlers from the rich valley round-about; Indians of many tribes--Cree, -Sioux, Ojibway; the heterogeneous mixture that yet lacked a drop of the -Yankee or continental blood which would flow, ten years later, in a -broad river over the American border. But this was after she had fallen -into her place in the household of Glaves's big sister among a -scattering of teachers, up for the Normal course, a brace of lawyers, -three store-keepers, and a Scotch surgeon. - -Just what or where that place was would be hard to say, seeing that it -varied with the view-point of each lodger, nor remained the same in the -opinion of any specific one. Thus did she shine, for one whole week, -the particular star in the heaven of an English teacher, a mercurial lad -of twenty; then having rejected his heart with a pecuniary attachment of -thirty-five dollars per mensem, she fell like a shooting-star and became -a mere receptacle for his succeeding passions, which averaged three a -month. His fellow-teachers swung on an opposite arc. Canadians, and -mostly recruited from the country, the soil still clung to their heavy -boots. The profession, its aims and objects, formed their staple of -conversation. Deeply imbued with the sense of the central importance of -pedagogy in the scheme of things, they wore an air of owlish wisdom that -was incompatible with the contemplation of such sublunary things as -girls. Having wives, it was not to be expected that the store-keepers -could notice a young person whose attractions so far exceeded her known -acquaintance, and though the surgeon, a young man prodigiously bony as -to the leg and neck, really worshipped her from behind the far folds of -his breakfast newspaper, thought transference still lay in the womb of -future humbuggery and she catalogued him as injuriously cold. - -From this conglomerate of humanity she gained one friend, the young wife -of a lawyer who had lately come West. Prettily dark as Helen was -delicately fair, each made a foil for the other, which necessary base -for feminine friendships being established, their relations were further -cemented by an equal loneliness, and made more interesting by the -expectation of an event. As it was not yet fashionable to shoo the -stork away from the roof-tree, behold the pair fussing and sewing -certain small garments with much tucking, trimming, insertioning, -regulating said processes by the needs of some future mystery dight -"shortening"--all of which brought Helen mixed feelings. The young -husband's part in said operations was particularly trying. Supposedly -immersed in his paper of evenings, he would watch them over the tip with -a delighted sagacity akin to the knowing look which a bull-dog bestows -on a crawling kitten. At times, too, he would descend upon the work and -lay wee undervests out on his big palm, tie ridiculously small caps over -his shut fist, ask absurd questions, and generally display the manly -ignorance so sweet to the wifely soul; while Helen sat, a silent -spectator of their happiness. It is a question which the acquaintance -brought her most, pain or pleasure. - -The tale of the boarders would not be complete without mention of Jean -Glaves, a buxom woman, fair of hair, whose strong, broad face seemed to -incarnate the very spirit of motherhood. With her Helen's place was -never in doubt. Opening her big heart, she took the lonely girl right -in, and proved a veritable fount of energy in her disheartening search -for work. - -In this her first experience conformed to that usual with a -working-girl--she shivered under icy stares, shrank from the rude -rebuffs of busy men, and blushed under smiles of idle ones; sustained -the inevitable insult at the hands of a rascally commission broker at -the end of one day's employment. His quick, appraising glance, -following a first refusal, would have warned a sophisticated business -woman, but the innocence which betrayed Helen later proved her best -protection. The horror in her eyes, childlike look of hurt surprise, -set the dull reds of shame in the fellow's cheeks, but she was out in -the street with hat and jacket while he was still muttering his apology. -Yet his grossness fell short of the vile circumspection of her next -employer. A smug pillar of society and something in a church, caution -would not permit him to stake reputation against possible pleasure on a -single throw, yet she labored under no illusions as to the motive behind -her second discharge. - -"Oh, I can't bear it! I just can't try again!" she cried that night to -Jean Glaves. - -"You won't have to, dearie," the big woman comforted, and having tucked -her comfortably upon her own lounge with a wet cloth upon her aching -head, she went straight to the Scotch surgeon's room. - -Her choice of confidant may have been due either to intuition or -knowledge of what was going on behind the ramparts of the young man's -breakfast paper. The event proved it wise, for his giraffe neck -lengthened under his angry gulps, his bony hands and nodding head -emphasized and attested Jean's scathing deliverence upon men in general. -"The scoundrel!" he exclaimed, when she paused for lack of breath. "The -scoundrel! I'd flog him mysel' but for the scandal. But see you he'll -no' go unpunished. He's a bid in for the hospital supplies, and I'll be -having a word with the head doctor." And thus, later, was the smug -villain hit to the tune of some hundreds in his tenderest place, the -pocket. - -Not content with future revenge, the Scotchman's sympathy expressed -itself in practical suggestion. "If ye'd think, Mistress Glaves"--he -always accorded Jean the quaint title, and it fell gracefully from his -stiff lips--"now if ye'd suppose the young leddy would like to try her -hand at nursing, there's a vacancy in the hospital." - -While he hesitated, Jean literally grabbed opportunity by the collar. -"You come along with me." - -Introduced a few seconds thereafter to man and subject, Helen exclaimed -that she would love the work; nor were her thanks less sincere for being -couched in stereotyped form. How _could_ she thank him? Being sincere -to the point of pain, after the fashion of his nation, the young man had -almost answered that the obligation lay with him in that his studies -behind the newspaper would be furthered and facilitated. He replied, -instead, that the pay would be small, the work hard. - -Not to be discouraged, she was thus launched upon what, in her -condition, was the best of possible careers. For the mental suffering -which, lacking an outlet, burns inwardly till naught is left of feeling -but slag and cinders, becomes the strongest of motor forces when -expended in service for others. Throwing herself body and soul into the -new work, she forgot the suspicion, scandal that had lately embittered -her days, and had such surcease of loneliness that in one month the -lines of pain disappeared from around her eyes, her drooping mouth drew -again into the old firm tenderness. - -Besides content, the month brought her other satisfactions. Owing to -lack of accommodation at the hospital, she still slept at the -boarding-house, and dropping into Jean Glaves's room for a chat one -evening, she found her conversing with a girl of her own age. She would -have retired but that Jean called her back. "Don't go! We were talking -of you. This is Miss Dorothy Chester, who used to board with me. Miss -Chester--Mrs. Morrill." - -There was, of course, nothing in the names to convey the significance of -the introduction to either. After that period of secret study which is -covered by the feminine amenities, each decided that she liked the -other. Helen gladly accepted Dorothy's invitation to call, and in this -ordinary fashion began a momentous acquaintance that soon developed -through natural affinity into one of those rare and softly beautiful -friendships which are occasionally seen between women. And as -friendship means association in a city that has no theatre and few -amusements, it soon happened that any evening might see Dorothy in -Helen's room, or Helen on the way to her friend's hotel. Naturally -Helen quickly learned that her friend's father and lover were head -engineers on Carter's road, and that she had visited them in camp; and -as Dorothy was as willing to talk of her novel experience as Helen to -listen, imagine the pair in the former's cosey bedroom, one snugged up -on a lounge, the other coiled in some mysterious feminine fashion on -pillows at her side, fair girl hanging on dark girl's lips as she -prattled of Carter, or joining in speculations as to what kind of a -woman his wife might be. - -She positively jumped when Dorothy declared one evening: "I'm sure he -still loves her. Ernest says that he scoured the city for her; only -gave up when he felt sure that she had gone East to her friends. When -the road is finished, he is going back to look for her." - -_He had searched for her_! _Still loved her_! It rhymed with her deft -fingers rolling bandages; tuned her feet as she bore medicine-trays from -ward to ward; ousted the dry anatomical terms of the daily lecture from -their proper place in her mind. The thought illumined her face so that -maimed men twisted on their cots to watch her down the ward. Meeting -her on the main stairs, one day, Carruthers, the Scotch surgeon, almost -mistook her for the Virgin Mother in the stained window above the -landing. _He searched for me! is going back East to look for me_! The -days spun by to that magical refrain. - -Why, in view of all this, did she not confide in Dorothy? Though its -roots grip deep down in woman nature, the strange, contradictory, -inconsequential, yet wise woman nature, the reason lies close to the -surface. Physically akin to the impulse which urges a shy doe to fly -from its forest mate, her feeling flowed, mentally, from injured -wifehood. For all her natural sweetness and joy over the thought of -reunion, she was not ready to purchase happiness with unconditional -surrender; to make overtures directly, or through Dorothy, that might be -construed as a bid for executive clemency. As he had deserted her, so -he must return; and that prideful resolution was strengthened and -justified by the suffering which had immeasurably exceeded her fault. -Yes, first he must return, then--would she instantly forgive him? Any -lover can answer the question; if not, let him consult his sweetheart. -"I'd make him suffer!" she will cry, gritting pretty teeth. So Helen. -_Very_ unchristian, wicked, but natural. - -No, she did not confide in Dorothy, went quietly about her business, -hugging her sweet secret to her own soul, until-- But this summary of -her thought and feeling would not be complete without mention of a last, -perhaps greatest, satisfaction--her joy in reading newspaper accounts of -Carter's progress. Editorials, politics, reports, she read all, day by -day, glowing over red-hot denunciations of the monopoly while she -thought what good men the editors must be, and how intelligent to so -clearly discern her husband's merits. She was mightily troubled by the -insatiate appetite of the Devil's Muskeg, studying its rapacious dietary -as though it were a diabetes patient. She triumphed when Carter -successfully treated its ineffable hunger with vegetarian diet of -sawdust; shivered when he was refused a crossing of the trunk line; -thrilled over the battle when Bender and the woodmen beat back the -monopoly's levies while the trackmen laid the "diamond," and grew sick -with fear, as before mentioned, when she heard the newsboys crying out -Carter's final repulse as she was walking home to her room about eight -o'clock one evening. - -Though very tired, she immediately turned in her agitation, and, -undeterred by the continent of blue-print uniform that spread below her -brown ulster, she hurried to Dorothy's hotel, an old caravansary that -had survived two rebellions and the bursting of the boom. Once chief of -the city's hostelries, the old house still attracted people who -preferred its solid comfort to the gilt, lacquer, garish splendors of -more modern rivals. The parlor in which she waited while her name was -taken up to Dorothy, was panelled with sombre woods; her feet literally -sank in a pile carpet, thick, green, and dark as forest moss. Walls -were upholstered in hammered leather; chairs, heavy table, massive -furnishings, all were of black oak. The portraits of governors, high -commissioners, and chief factors of the Hudson Bay Company, soldiers and -traders or both, seemed ready to step down from their frames to engage -in wise council and issue fiats that would set a hundred tribes in -motion. Time stood still in that solid atmosphere. Heavy odors of -leather and wood, the pervading feeling of peaceful age combined to -soothe her fretted nerves, and she had just relaxed her tired body -within the embrace of a mighty chair when passing footsteps and a voice -brought her up, tense and rigid. - -Returning just then, the bell-boy repeated her question: "Gentlemen who -just passed, Miss? Mr. Greer and Mr. Smythe, people that are financing -the new line, and Mr. Carter, their head contractor. They are dining -here with the general manager of the trunk line. If you'd like to see -them," he added, interpreting her interest as curiosity, "just step this -way. They've all gone in, and you can peep through the glass doors. -It's that dark in the passage no one will see you." - -As she tiptoed after him down the dark hallway he whispered -further--"Reminds me of them old Romans, the general manager; them -fellows that used to invite a man to a poisoned dinner. He's got those -chaps shooed up into a corner, and now he's going to kill their -financial goose over the cigars and wine. Sure, Miss, everybody knows -that Greer's on his last legs. Bit off more than he could chew when he -went to railroading; but old Brass Bowels will treat his indigestion. -That's him, stout gent with his back this way. Greer and Smythe's -either side of him. That's Mr. Carter opposite. T'other gentleman, Mr. -Sparks, is general superintendent of the western division." - -Slipping by the others her glance glued--the term is eschewed by -purists, who ironically inquire if the adhesive used was of the -carpenter variety, but it exactly describes her steadfast gaze--her -glance glued to Carter's face. From above an arc lamp streamed white -light down upon him, darkening the hollows under his eyes, raising his -strong features in bold relief. This, be it remembered, was the first -she had seen of him since he broke in upon the Ravell dinner-party, -black, sooty, smelling evilly of sweat and smoke. And now he sat with a -waiter behind his chair, at meat with the greatest man in the north, at -a table that was spread with plate, cut-glass, linen, all of a costly -elegance that transcended her own experience. The champagne bucket, at -his elbow, of solid silver, with gold-crusted bottles thrusting sloping -shoulders out of cracked ice, the last accessory of luxurious living, -took on wonderful significance in that it accentuated to the last degree -their changed positions. For surely the gods had turned the tables by -bringing her in print hospital uniform and shabby ulster to witness this -crowning of his development. - -Be sure she felt the contrast. How could she do otherwise? Yet her -feeling lacked the slightest touch of humiliation. Above such -snobbishness, she was filled by joy and pride in his achievement, joined -with tremulous fear, for the bell-boy's remarks had quickened her -apprehension. That distinguished company, costly appointments, perfect -service, impressed her as little as it did Carter, which is saying a -good deal, for the pomp of civilization counts more with women than men, -and he was bearing himself with the easiness of one who has conquered -social circumstance. He chose the right fork for his salad, knife for -his butter; broke his bread delicately, trifled with green olives as if -born to the taste--though this edible presented itself as a new and -bitter experience--small things and foolish if made an end in -themselves, yet important in that, with improper usage, they become as -barbed thorns in the side of self-respect. Significant things in -Carter's case because they showed that he had applied to his social -relations the same shrewdness, common-sense, keen sight that was making -him successful in large undertakings. - -Of course she noted his improvement? That he no longer used knife for -spoon, squared elbows over his head, sopped bread in gravy? On the -contrary, she saw only his face, dark and stern save when a smile -brought the old humor back to his mouth. Her hungry eyes traced its -every line, marking the minutest changes wrought by thought, care, -sorrow, time's graving tools. Hands pressing her breast, she struggled -for his voice with thick oak and heavy plate-glass, and so stood, -wrapped up in him and their past, till the bell-boy spoke. - -"Miss Chester said you was to go right up, Miss." - -She jumped, and her tremulous fear took form in words. "You are sure -the general manager will--" - -"--Do things to 'em?" he finished, as he led her upstairs. "They're -dead ones, Miss." - - - - - *XXVII* - - *THE NATURE OF THE CINCH* - - -The bell-boy was not alone in his opinion. Through that summer twenty -thousand settler farmers had kept suspicious tab on the monopoly, and -now that it felt the clutch reclosing on its throat, the entire province -had flamed up in wrath and fear. Press, legislature, and pulpit -denounced the refusal of a crossing that was without shadow of a claim -in equity, and was plainly intended to kill competition by tedious and -costly litigation. In town, village, on trail, at meeting, wherever two -settlers were gathered together, the general manager's action was damned -in no uncertain terms. Indignation flowed like a tidal-wave over the -plains. Skimming low with the north wind, an aeronaut would have heard -the hum of speech rise from the face of the land, angry and continuous -as the buzz of swarming bees. It had pealed out in clarion triumph, -that huge _vox humana_, when the "diamond" was laid after desperate -fighting; it swelled in furious discordance when, the previous day, -Carter's men were forced back by sheer weight of the levies that the -general manager had gathered and brought in from the sections along -three thousand miles of track. - -It was one of those situations which require only a touch of demagoguery -to wreak great harm. Insurrection hung thick in the air. Secession and -coalescence with the United States were openly advocated by men who -later read with astonishment their own words in the papers of that -stormy time. Thousands of armed settlers waited only for the word to -fall upon the monopoly's levies, but in face of united public opinion, -backed by an inflamed press, Carter and his people remained -quiescent--supinely quiescent, according to certain editorials. - -A morning paper recalled its prediction of months ago: "We warned Mr. -Carter not to be deceived by the monopoly's complaisance in bringing his -construction outfit and supplies out from the East over its tracks. The -concession was merely bait for the trap, analogous to the handing of a -rope to a fool wherewith to hang himself. We are loath to quote the old -proverb against Mr. Carter, yet were it not for the fact that the -monopoly snaps its fingers in the face of this province through him, we -should be tempted to show satisfaction at the plight to which his -fatuous self-confidence has brought him." - -The article closed with a vivid word picture of the general manager -chuckling _a la_ Mephistopheles in the privacy of his luxurious office; -which, perhaps, approximated the reality more closely than that in the -minds of the laity. For a composite of the popular impression would -have shown the entire railroad pantheon, general manager, department -heads, with their clerks, sub-heads, assistants, and deputy assistants, -all very lofty of brow and solemn of face, in session over the crisis. - -The reality was much more prosaic. Indifferent to the newsboys, who -were crying his crimes on the streets, the general manager sat in the -office of the division superintendent that morning, chair tilted back, -feet on the table, thumbs comfortably bestowed in the arm-holes of his -vest. It has remained for a practical business age to clothe itself in -the quintessence of ugliness. Imagine Julius Caesar in a tuxedo, Hamlet -wearing a stove-pipe hat! His black coat, check trousers would have -pleased a grocer's fancy in Sunday wear, and it were difficult to -realize that their commonplace ugliness clothed a power greater than -Caesar's--the ability to create and people provinces, to annihilate and -build up towns, to move cities like checkers over the map; harder still -to listen to his curt speech, issuing from blue tobacco smoke, and -believe that an empire larger than ancient Rome paid him tribute, that -the blood and sweat of a generation had gone to grease his juggernautal -wheels. Yet the speech itself certified to the power. - -"We made a mistake, Sparks; but who could foresee this fellow Carter? -Here's the N.P. lusting for a chance to cut in over the border. Give -them that crossing and old Jim Ball will place their bonds for any -amount in exchange for reciprocal running arrangements. So we've got to -make a quick killing. Buy 'em out, lock, stock, and barrel, while the -fear of God's in their hearts. They must sell--look at this Bradstreet -report on old Greer's assets. Just about at the end of his string. So -I want you to write and invite them to dinner to-night--Greer, Smythe, -and Carter--though the order ought to be reversed; he's the brains of -the business. Draw it mild--conference with a view to amicable -arrangement of points at issue, and so forth. But when we once get them -there--" His nod was brutal in its significance. - -Equally wide of popular conception was the scene in the banking office -of Greer & Smythe when the invitation was delivered. Carter, who swung -an easy leg from his favorite perch on the table, seemed to have thrived -on defeat; the most elastic imagination would have failed to invest him -with the weight of a people's cares. Indeed, he laughed when the senior -partner handed him the general manager's note. - -"Hum! 'Will you walk into my parlor, said the spider to the fly!' What -do I make of it? That's easy. Has us going--or thinks he has--and is -aching to deliver the knock-out. A million to a minute he wants to buy -us out." - -"Well, he never will!" Red and plethoric, the senior partner sprang up. -An elderly man, his clear eyes, honest face, framed in white -side-whiskers of the Dundreary style, all stamped him as belonging to -the old-fashioned school of finance which aimed always to advance the -civic interest while turning an honest penny. "No, sir!" he reiterated. -"We'll break first; and goodness knows that is not so far away. -Yesterday I approached Murray, of the North American Bank, but he -answered me in his broad Scotch: 'Hoots, mon! get your crossing first. -Get your crossing an' we'll talk.' And so with Butler, Smith, and -others who promised support." - -"Cold feet, eh?" Carter commented. "They'll warm them presently chasing -themselves for a chance to come in." - -The old gentleman ran on in his indignation. "Yes, we are about at the -end of our financial string, but we would rather dangle there than yield -to these pirates. Am I right, sir?" - -Smythe, a younger man, lean, laconic, and dark as the other was stout, -florid, nodded, and his vigorous answer was untainted by a suspicion of -compromise. "Surely, sir! But if Mr. Carter's plan fails--" His shrug -supplied the hiatus. - -Carter answered the shrug. "It won't fail." He held up the invitation. -"But, say! Fancy--to-day, of all days?" - -"Of course we won't go," Smythe frowned. - -"Of course we* will*," Carter grinned. "Think what it means? Besides -blinding them to the trap, we shall be there when it springs, and I -wouldn't miss Brass Bowels' face for a thousand, cash. Let me see; the -bid is for eight-thirty. Western flyer is due at Portage station -nine-fifteen. He'll hardly broach business before the coffee, and with -any kind of luck we ought to serve him up a beautiful case of -indigestion." - -"With luck?" the senior partner echoed. - -"With or without. Everything is planned beyond possibility of failure. -Mr. Chester goes with Mr. Hart on the construction-train, while Bender -keeps things humming at the crossing. By-the-way, he's in the outer -office now, with Hart, waiting for last orders, and if you don't mind -I'll have them in. I wouldn't take a chance even on your clerks." - -In view of just such a contingency, Bender had invested his bulk with -store clothes of that indescribable pattern and cut which fulfils -lumberman ideals. From his mighty shoulders a quarter-acre of black -coat fell half-way down worsted pantaloons that were displaying an -unconquerable desire to use the wrinkles of high boots as a step-ladder -to his knees. As collars did not come in sizes for his red throat, he -had compromised on a kerchief of gorgeous silk, and a soft hat, flat and -black, completed a costume that was at once his pride and penance. In -the luxurious office, with its rich fittings in mahogany and leather, he -loomed larger than ever; was foreign as a bear in a lady's boudoir. -Uncomfortably aware of the fact, he took the chair which the senior -partner offered with a sigh of relief, and was fairly comfortable till -the position discovered its own disadvantages--while his coat announced -every movement with miniature _feux de joie_ from bursting seams, his -trousers ascended his boots as a fireman goes up a hotel escape. To -which sources of discomfort was added the knowledge that his face mapped -in fair characters the fluctuations of the recent combat. But he forgot -all--scars, raiment, unconventional bulk--as soon as he began to talk. - -"All ready," he replied to Carter's question. "Buckle has been round -the camp some lately. Only this morning I caught him talking to -Michigan Red. It's a cinch that he was spotting for the railroad, but -as I knew you'd as lief he'd tip us off as not, I didn't bust his head. -Jes' allowed I didn't see him." - -"Yes, let him talk," Carter replied, relative to the broken contractor. -"But"--he addressed the surveyor--"there's no whispering in your -outfit?" - -"Couldn't be," the young fellow laughed. "Mr. Chester only told _me_ an -hour ago. The men know nothing--will _know_ nothing up to the moment we -pull into Prairie." - -"Good. Now, you are to leave at dusk, and don't forget to grab the -operator before he can rattle a key. But turn him loose as soon as you -are through and let him wire in the news. And you, Bender, start in at -eight, keep 'em busy as long as you can, then load what's left of you in -a flat-car and steam round for Mr. Hart." - -"What's left of me?" Bender growled, as he walked with the surveyor -down-street a few minutes later. "Hum! Give me the Cougar and an even -hundred of old-style Michigan men, and I'd drive the last of Brass -Bowels' tarriers into the Red and beat you out laying the diamond. But, -Lordy, what's the use o' talking! The old stock petering out an' the -new's jes' rotten with education. They'd sooner work than fight, an' -loaf than either, for they ain't exactly what you'd call perticler hell -on labor. What's left of me? Well, there'll be some fragments, I -guess. While I was hanging round I picked up an odd score of Oregon -choppers that blew in here las' week. Brass Bowels' agent tried for -'em, but they'd lumbered with me in British Columbia. Come out an' see -'em. They're beauties." - -Perhaps they were, for standards of beauty, morality, of any old thing, -are merely relative and depend so much on local color. To Hart, who -reviewed the "beauties" in Bender's camp, they seemed the most -unmitigated ruffians in his railroad experience; but as they strut on -this small section of the world-stage for "Positively one appearance -only," let them be judged by their record in the rough work of that -night; by the way in which they bore themselves in the roar, surge, and -tumble of a losing fight, the echoes of which alarmed the dark city and -came with the soup to the general manager's dinner; and let him deliver -their valedictory to his guests at table. - -Throwing a telegram--which a waiter brought in just after Helen went -up-stairs--across to Carter, the magnate remarked: "That big foreman of -yours has been at it again. He has put two of our heaviest engines into -the ditch and ten men into hospital. Not bad, but--he didn't lay the -diamond." - -"Oh, well," Carter shrugged, "better luck next time." - -"Ah, yes--the next time?" Repeating the phrase with dubious inflection, -he went on with his dinner, and for an hour thereafter no one heard the -rattle of the skeleton behind the feast. He acted the perfect host, -easily courteous, pleasant, anxious for the preference of his guests. -As he ran on, drawing from the sources of a wide and unusual experience -for his dinner chat, it was curious to note the shadings in his manner. -Addressing the partners, he seemed to exhale rather than evidence a -superiority which, on their part, they countenanced by an equally subtle -homage. Integrity and deprecation of his policy and methods were -dominated by the orthodox business sense which forced subconscious -recognition of his title as king of their business world. With Carter, -however, he was frankly free, as though they two had been section-men -eating their bite together on a pile of ties, and doubtless the -difference in his manner sprang from some such feeling. For whereas the -partners were born to their station, he recognized Carter as a -product--unfinished, but still a product--of the forces which had -produced himself and a dozen other kings and great contractors of the -constructive railroad era. Without invidious distinction or neglect of -the others, he yet made him the focus of attention. - -"We heard all about your sawdust grades," he complimented, with real -cordiality. "A mighty clever idea, sir; pity you couldn't patent -it--though we are glad you cannot, for we intend to apply it on all our -Rainy River muskegs." - -Approaching business at the close of the meal, he was equally suave. -"You are to be complimented upon your achievement, gentlemen," he said, -addressing the partners. "We feel that while supplying a real need of -the province, you have convicted us of remissness. But now that we do -see our duty, it would be equally criminal for us to leave you the -burden of this heavy responsibility. We know how it has taxed your -resources"--his gray eye stabbed the senior partner--"and we are fully -prepared to relieve you." Pausing, he lit a cigar, puffed a moment, and -finished, "We will take the enterprise off your hands, bag and baggage, -on terms that will yield you a handsome profit." - -A pause followed. No man turns from an easy road to a rocky climb -without lingering backward glances, and the partners looked at one -another while the general manager leaned back and smoked with the air of -one who had faithfully performed a magnanimous duty. Greer spoke first. - -"Very kind offer, I am sure." - -"Most handsome," Smythe, the laconic, added. "But--" He glanced at -Carter, who finished, "We are not on the market." - -The manager raised his brows. Expecting a first refusal, he was -slightly staggered and irritated by its bluntness, yet masked both -emotions. "Not on your own terms?" - -"On no terms," Greer emphatically answered; then, flushing, he added: -"Our chief motive in going into this enterprise, sir, was to bring -sorely needed railroad competition into this province. It would not be -subserved by our selling to you." - -The manager flicked the ash from his cigar. Then, while smoking, he -regarded the old gentleman from under bulging lids very much as a -curious collector might note the wriggles of an impaled beetle. "Very -laudable intention; does you credit, sir. But you must pardon me if I -doubt that you will carry it to the length of financial hari-kari. You -have heard of that Japanese custom? A man commits suicide, empties -himself upon a cold and unsympathetic world for the benefit of his -enemy, who is compelled by custom to go and do likewise. In your case -the sacrifice would be foolish because we shouldn't follow suit. Now -when I spoke of your resources"--during an ugly pause his glance -flickered between the partners--"I did not state our exact knowledge of -their extent. You are--practically--broke. In addition, we have bought -up all of your paper that we could find floating on the market, and -three months from now--we shall be in a position to demand a receiver in -bankruptcy. Stop!" Frowning down Greer's attempted interruption, he -dropped his suave mask and stood out, the financial king, brutal, -imperious, predatory. "I know what you would say. Three months is a -long time. But no one will make you a better offer--any offer--till you -can cross our line. You can force a crossing? Yes, but we'll law you, -badger you, carry the case from court to court up to the privy -council--two years won't make an end. In the meantime--" He had thrown -himself at them, bearing down upon them with all the force of his -powerful will, of the furiously strong personality that had crushed -financial opposition to plans and projects beside which their enterprise -was as a grain of sand to the ocean. Now, in a flash, he became again -the polished host. "Take your time, gentlemen. _We_ are in no hurry. -Several days, if you choose. But--be advised." - -But big, strong, and masterful as the manager was, every Goliath has his -David, and the first stone in the forehead came from the sling of -Smythe--Smythe, who had hardly opened his mouth through the meal save -for the admittance of food or drink. Banging the table so that the -glass rang and a champagne bowl flew from its thin stem, he sprang up, -his dark face flushed and defiant. "We'll take neither your advice nor -your time! God knows that we are hard shoved, but damn a man who sells -his country! And since you have been so outspoken, let me tell you that -we'll run trains across your line, and that inside--" - -"This hour." In its quiet assurance, Carter's interpolation came with -all the force of an accomplished fact. The manager started, and the -division superintendent upset his wine. As their backs were to the -door, neither saw a waiter take a telegram from a messenger-boy, and -sign for its delivery after a glance at the clock, which indicated -half-past nine. Nor could either fact have the significance for them -that their combination had for Carter. - -The manager recovered his poise even as the waiter handed the telegram -to his colleague, and, though puzzled, hid the feeling behind a show of -confident contempt. "I hardly gather your meaning, but presume you -mean--war?" - -Missing the superintendent's sudden consternation, he was going on. -"Very well. I _had_ hoped--" when the former pulled his sleeve. -"What's this?" - -He stared blankly at the words: "Construction-train, with men and -Gatling-guns, across our tracks at Prairie. Number ten, Western Mail, -held up with three hundred passengers." - -During an astonished silence, the partners watched the manager, who -looked at Carter, who lightly drummed on the table. "Your train?" he -went on, slowly, with words that evidenced his flashing insight into the -situation. "Hum! Sawdust, eh? Came down the spur you laid to the -Portage Mills at Prairie; grabbed our operator; then extended the -mill-switch across our tracks. Know how to kill two birds with one -stone, don't you?" - -During a second silence he fenced glances, nervously fingering the -telegram, then suddenly asked: "What's the use? You can't hold it?" - -"With two Gatlings and five hundred men--five thousand, if I need them?" - -"The law's against you." - -"As it is against you at the crossing. Possession is said to be nine of -its points, anyway, so we have you just nine-tenths to the bad." -Slightly smiling, he quoted: "'We'll law you, badger you, carry the case -from court to court up to the privy council--two years won't make an -end.'" - -The manager raised heavy lids. "In three months we'll break you." - -Carter shrugged. "Who knows? In the mean time--your traffic will be -suspended?" - -Through all the superintendent had fidgeted nervously; now he broke in: -"Pish, man! We'll build round your old train in six hours." - -"Will you?" Without even a glance in his direction, Carter ran on, -addressing the manager: "You see, land is that cheap since the boom that -we took options on a right of way from Prairie clean up to the north -pole and down to the American border. No, you won't go around us, but -we shall go round you and come into this burg south of your tracks." - -"But you're out of law," the superintendent angrily persisted. "You -haven't the shadow of a right--" - -"Oh, shut up, Sparks," the manager impatiently interrupted. "What has -right to do with it? He's got us in the door and it's no use squealing. -Now"--the glance he turned on Carter was evenly compounded of hostility -and admiration--"terms? You'll release our train--" - -"When you cede our legal crossing, and call off your dogs. We'll hold -Prairie till every man Jack of your guards is shipped out of the city." - -"Could you have the papers drawn--" He had intended "to-night," but he -paused as Greer drew them from an inner pocket and his iron calm -dissolved in comical disgust. "Hum! You're not timid about grabbing -time by the forelock. But, let me see!" - -Once more the arc lights could be heard sputtering. In that tense moment -their own fortunes swung in the balance with the welfare of a province, -and while the manager read they waited in silence. Trimming the end of -a cigar with careful precision, Carter masked all feeling, but the -partners could not hide their nervousness--Smythe fidgeted, Greer locked -and unlocked clasped fingers. Both held their breath till the manager's -pen made a rough scratch on the silence. - -A good loser, he said, as Greer rose after buttoning his coat over the -precious document: "Don't go, gentlemen--at least till we have drunk the -occasion. I see another bottle there in the ice." - -And his toast, "To our next merry meeting," formed the premise of the -deduction which Carter returned to Greer's relieved exclamation when -they stood, at last, alone in the street. - -"Thank God! It is over!" - -"On the contrary, it is just begun." - -Passing under a street lamp, its white light revealed the pale -disturbance which banished the senior partner's flushed content. -Stopping dead, he agitatedly seized Carter's arm. - -"You don't suppose he will go back on his--" - -"Signature? No, he won't repeat. He's done with the crossing." - -"Then we can weather through," Greer said, and Smythe echoed his sigh of -relief. - -"But--" Carter quoted the bucolic proverb which recites the many ways in -which a pig may be killed other than by a surfeit of butter. - -"But what _can_ he do?" Greer persisted. - -"Don't know," Carter slowly answered. "Only a man don't have to look at -that bull-dog jaw of his a second time to know that he'll do it, and do -it quick." - -"I'd give a good deal to know," Smythe frowned, then smoothed his -knotted brow as he laughed at Carter's rejoinder. - -"I'd give three cents myself." - -Not feeling sleepy, Carter walked on after he had dropped the partners -at their respective doors, aimlessly threading the dark streets that -gave back his hollow foot-fall; and so passing, by chance, under Helen's -window, he brought a pause in the anxious meditation which had kept her -restlessly tossing, and set her to momentary speculations as to the -owner of that firm and heavy tread. She listened, listened till it grew -fainter and died as he turned the corner. Keeping on in the cool -silence, he presently came to the Red River suspension bridge, where he -paused and leaned on the parapet at the very spot from which she loved -to watch Indians and chattering squaws float beneath in quaint birch -canoes. There was, of course, nothing to warn him of the fact any more -than she could have guessed him as owner of the solitary foot-fall. He -thought of her, to be sure. Always she stood in the background, ready -to claim him whenever press of affairs permitted reflection; and now she -thrust in between him and the twinkling lights of the sleeping city. -Where was she? And doing--what? How much longer before he could go in -search of her? After long musing he swept the weary intervening days -away with an impatient gesture, and his longing took form in muttered -speech: - -"How long? My God! how much longer?" - -The thought brought him back to his work and the events of the evening. -What would be the manager's next move? He gazed down into the dark -river intently, as though he expected its hoarse voice to give answer. -But though he canvassed, as he thought, every possibility, the -reality--which presented itself a week or so after he resumed operations -in the Silver Creek forests--was beyond the range of his thought. - - - - - *XXVIII* - - *THE STRIKE* - - -As aforesaid, it was the unexpected that opposed Carter with a visage of -stony calm when he came from Winnipeg out to the "Ragged Lands" a week -or so later. For whereas he had left the camp convulsed in throes of -constructive labor, the whistle of his engine raised piercing echoes; no -other sounds disturbed the sleeping forest. In the cut south of the -camp he passed the big digger, at rest from the roar, rattle, and clank -of chains, hiss of escaping steam. The pile-driver loomed idly on a -distant trestle. When engine and caboose stopped opposite the -cook-house, he saw that the camp--which ought to have been empty--teemed -with men. - -He shrugged when Hart, who was with him, exclaimed in wonder: "Can't -prove it by me. But we'll soon know. There's Bender--coming from the -office." - -"Strike," the giant replied to their questioning. "Teamsters, graders, -bridge and track men, all went out at noon. What for? God knows; but I -allow that Buckle could tell. He wasn't hanging round the Winnipeg camp -for nothing. I'm sorry now--" His bunched fists, big as mauls, fully -explained his regret, and indicating a group which was arranging its -progress so as to make the office door with Carter, he finished: "But if -you're hankering for reasons, consult them gentlemen. It's a -depytation--by its scowl. An' it's loaded to the muzzle with statistics -to fire at you." - -Following his finger, Carter noted that Michigan Red was of the -deputation, but when it ranged up at the tent door in sheepish yet -defiant array, that worthy hung modestly in the rear, permitting a big -teamster from the Silver Creek settlements to act as spokesman. Blunt, -honest, tenacious as a bull-dog in holding to an idea, the man was an -ideal tool for unscrupulous hands; but though he instantly divined the -reasons behind his leadership, Carter listened quietly to his tale--the -old tale--overwork, poor food, underpay. - -His answer was equally quiet. "You are certainly to be pitied, Bill; -breaks me all up just to think of your wrongs. I've always admired your -thrift, and I sympathize with your desire to raise the mortgage off your -farm. Took you five years to put it on, didn't it, Bill? And you are -calculating to pay it off in the next two months. Well, perhaps--but -you'll have to screw it out of some one else than me." - -Shuffling uneasily, the teamster glanced at his backers, who, equally -nonplussed, gazed at one another. For where an angry, or even a plain -answer would have merely incited them to dogged opposition, this quiet -ridicule sapped conceit in their cause, besides conveying an alarming -suggestion of strength in reserve. - -"Then you don't allow to fall in with our notions?" The spokesman -returned after a whispered conference. - -"Meaning--an hour less and a dollar more? You're sure a psychic, Bill; -plumb wasted on railroading. Open an office in town and go to -fortune-telling and you'd pull that plaster off your homestead inside a -month." - -Assured that there was no hurry, that he could take a week to consider -the matter, he gravely added: "Obliged to you, Bill; but I don't allow -to require it. The world, you'll remember, was made in six days, and -this isn't near such a big job. No time like the present, and here's my -answer--same hours, same grub, same pay. It's fortune-telling or -present rates for yours, Bill." - -Through all he entirely ignored the delegation, and now he leaned in the -door, idly watching as it made its way across the camp and was swallowed -in the crowd of strikers about the bunk-house. But his face fell as he -stepped inside beyond eye and ear shot. "Serious?" he repeated Hart's -question. "Couldn't be worse. Not one of those fellows could make a -quarter of the wages or live half as well on the farm, but they'd hog it -all if I died in the ditch. But there's more behind this than their -spite and greed. You see, we have just about pulled old Murray in for -funds to make a clean finish, and if he gets wind of this he'll crawfish -like a one-legged crow. I must go back at once. And you, Bender--you, -also, Hart--see to it that not even a dog crawls out of this camp until -I return." - -"To keep these chaps guessing," he added, after a moment's dark -reflection, "I'd better slip out after dusk. You go over, Hart, and -whisper the engineer to back out and wait for me at the other side of -the cut. Mystery is good as aces up in any old game, and we can't fog -them too much." - -Pulling out at dark, he made the run back to town--fifty miles--in an -hour and a quarter, reckless running on unballasted road. Murray _must_ -be fully committed before the news leaked out. _We must get him, must -get him, must, must, must_! The wheels clicked it, the steam hissed it, -the fire roared it, the wind shrieked the imperative refrain. But -though Bender lived in the strict letter of his instructions so that a -mosquito could scarce have escaped from the camp; though a man could not -have made the distance in two days on foot, or a wild goose have passed -the throbbing engine as it bounded along that raw track, newsboys were -yet crying the strike as he came out on Main Street. - -Feeling certain that the office would be closed at that hour, he -intended to go straight to Greer's house, but seeing a light in the -partners' room as he came opposite the building, he went in and found -Smythe there, alone. With lean legs thrust out before him, hands deep in -his pockets, shoulders hunched to his ears, his attitude incarnated deep -dejection; gloom resided in his nod. - -"Greer?" he said. "At home--sick. You see, we were to have closed the -deal with Murray this very evening, and the disappointment just knocked -the old man out. He's been running altogether on his nerve lately; -something had to give. Why _couldn't_ this have happened a day later?" - -Answering Carter's question, he went on: "We heard it at noon. Papers -got out an extra. Presses must have been running it off before you -left." - -"Noon?" Carter whistled. "Why the men didn't quit till two!" Then as -the significance flashed upon him, he exclaimed: "Brass Bowels for a -million! It was all cut, dried, and laid away for us, and they served -it hot to the minute. Don't--it--beat--hell!" - -His comical disgust caused Smythe a wintry grin, but, sobering, he said: -"I wouldn't mind so much for myself. I'm young enough to do it again. -But the old gentleman--with that nice family! You know he was just -about ready to retire; only took up this business from a strong sense of -public duty. And now, in his extremity, every rat financier in this -city runs to his hole in fear of the cat. The poor old man!" - -Carter nodded his sympathy. On the occasions that he visited their -house, Greer's wife, a silver-haired old lady, had vied with her two -daughters in pleasant attentions. But it did not require that thought -to stir him to action. - -"Oh, here!" he laughed. "We are not dead yet. To-morrow I'll go the -round of the employment offices and--" - -Smythe threw up his hands, a gesture eloquent of despair. "Went round -myself--this afternoon. Harvest is on and men scarcer than diamonds. -Besides, Brass Bowels has left an order with every agency in town to -ship every man they can get west to the mountains." - -"Um-m!" Carter thought a while. "Then we'll have to play the last -card." - -"The last card?" Smythe raised his eyebrows. - -"Yes, biggest trump in the pack. How long before--" - -"Oh, they can't touch us for two months." - -"Good! Now listen." Glancing around as though distrustful of the very -walls, he whispered in Smythe's ear for a minute that saw the latter's -dejection dissolve in new-born hope. "You must go with me," he -finished, aloud. "While you pack your grip, I'll drop round and see -Greer. He must be here to-morrow to carry out the bluff. And -hurry--for we must make it down and back before we are missed." - - - - - *XXIX* - - *THE BLUFF* - - -It was the fifth day of the strike, and still no sound of labor -disturbed the sleeping forest. Quiet and calm, like that of the -Sabbath, brooded over the camp, but not its peace, for, being well -rested, the strikers chafed under inaction, moving restlessly among the -buildings. Michigan Red, to be sure, was dealing interminable poker on -a blanket under a tree, while the younger men skylarked or tried one -another out in games, but neither forms of amusement appealed to the -older and more thrifty Canadians. Secret disquiet, moreover, underlay -even the nonchalance of the gamblers, for Bender's mysterious looks and -Carter's continued absence were rapidly disintegrating the strikers' -confidence. - -"He ain't here," the giant had answered, when the committee had called -for another conference, and to further questioning he had returned an -irritating grin. "When will he be back? That's for us to know an' you -to find out." And so, shorn of its functions, the committee had -languished like a moulting peacock. In addition, the cook's ominous -visage at meal-times bade the strikers beware that the curse of labor -still clung to the fruits of the earth; and the fact that almost a -month's back pay rested in Carter's hands, served as a text and lent -force to the unpreached sermon. What if he never came back? The -history of Western construction abounded with cases of absconding -contractors, and the hostility of the monopoly lent substance to the -doubt. Most of them would have hailed Carter's advent, just then, with -real if secret pleasure, and the general uneasiness manifested itself in -a grumbling remark made as Michigan Red raked a fat "jack-pot" into his -winnings. - -"You're the only one that's making anything these days." - -"That's right," another grumbler added. "An' what's more, if we're out -another five days the raise won't pull us even by freeze-up. Ten days -lost at three-fifty is thirty-five dollars. Take the extra dollar seven -weeks to make it up--if the frost holds off that long." - -Apparently indifferent, Michigan went on with his deal. "You're hell at -figures, Chalky. Where'd you learn? Figuring interest on your -mortgage? How many cards, Bill?" - -But Bill, spokesman of the committee, laid down his hand. "Look here, -Red! Chalky's right. If we hadn't struck we'd have had a pay-day -yesterday, an' if we're standing to lose that much we can't call it off -too soon for me." - -"Nor me." - -"Nor me." The voices, pitched in altercation, had brought the idlers -crowding, and the support came in from all around. - -Michigan's teeth gleamed white through his red beard while his bleak -eyes took stock of the crowding faces as though calculating just how far -envy and avarice would take them. "You don't stand to lose a cent, -Bill. They've got to finish the contrac' before freeze-up to reach the -tie an' lumber-camps. Otherwise the road 'll be idle all winter, an' -what's a few days' pay alongside the freight on a hundred million feet -of lumber. He's got to finish it. If he kain't"--pausing, he -distributed a significant nod around the circle--"there's others as kin -an' will." - -"But what if he don't come back?" - -To the question which expressed the most pregnant doubt, he returned a -second meaning nod. "Same folks 'll make good." - -"Back pay?" Bill pressed. - -"Back pay." - -"On whose say so?" - -"Ain't mine good enough?" Ruffling, he turned a stream of fierce -profanity upon Carrots Smith, his questioner. "Want Bible and oath for -yours, eh? There's some things that kain't be told to idiots--" - -"Yes, yes, Red!" Bill soothed. "We know--that's all right, Red. Don't -mind him, he's only a suckling kid." - -"Sure, Red! You know what you're talking about. Go on!" others -chorused, and having gained his point by the show of anger, real or -false, the teamster allowed himself to be placated. - -"If 'twas necessary," he continued, "we could tie up the road with a -laborer's lien. But 'twon't be--I have somebody's word for it. If -Carter goes under, we jes' go right on." - -"With the raise?" - -"With the raise." - -"But if he comes back?" Chalky raised another doubt. "What about lost -time? Freeze-up is freeze-up, an' we kain't make it up if we're docked -for the lay-off." - -"That's easy. Who's to blame for it?" He threw it at the circle. - -"Him! He wouldn't give the raise." - -"Then let him pay for his fun. We've got him coming or going, an' we -draw time, at the new rates, for every idle day before we touch a tool. -Ain't that right?" - -It was not, yet his crooked logic exactly matched their envious -cupidity. Confidence once more returned; the younger men returned to -their sports; Bill picked up his hand, and the game proceeded until -interrupted, a half-hour later, by a sudden shout and shrill neighing -from the horse lines. - -"The stallion's loose!" - -Shouting, the roustabout tore across the clearing and just escaped the -rush of the vicious brute by nimbly climbing the projecting logs at the -cook-house corners. At his cry, a youth dropped the shot he had poised -for a throw, the gamblers their cards, and, balking in the take-off for -a broad jump, Carrots Smith led the rush for cover. A minute saw them -all on top of cook or bunk houses, and thus defrauded of his preference, -the stallion ran amuck among the horses which were tied at long -hay-racks, kicking, rearing, biting. Though built massively of logs, -the racks gave way with splintering crashes under the combined pull of a -hundred frightened beasts; and bunching, the string tore round the -clearing, squealing their fear. - -To give the beast ease with his oats, Michigan had removed the iron -muzzle according to his custom, and now, a free, wild thing, he bounded -along in hot pursuit, curveting, caracoling, satanic in his jet-black -beauty. Tossing his wild mane, he would call the mares with stridulous -cachinnations, yet for all his exultant passion left them to chase a -belated teamster, nose lowered, ears wickedly pricked, thrice around the -cook-house. Balked again, he reared, kicked, and was plunging once more -after the string when a whistle outshrilled his neigh, and an engine -with caboose attached rolled out of the cut south of the camp. - -But for the pounding hoofs, the collective whisper, "It's the boss!" -would have carried to Carter, who, with Smythe, stood looking out at the -door of the caboose; and his first remark, "Regular circus, isn't it?" -was eminently applicable to the situation. Upholding the sky's blue -roof, black spruce cones formed bulky pillars for the natural -amphitheatre in which the horses circled and recircled, a kicking, -squealing stream, before the audience on the roofs. - -"Where are you going?" Smythe exclaimed, as Carter leaped to the ground. - -"To rope that beast before he runs a season's flesh off the teams. -There's a riata in the office." - -"Better shoot him," Smythe counselled. "Here! come back!" But he was -already half-way across the clearing. - -Choosing his time, he passed from the smithy to the bunk-house, thence -to the cook-house, and so working from building to building under the -eyes of his men, he gained the office at last and shot in, barely -escaping the mad cavalcade. As he emerged, coiling the riata, Smythe's -gaze drew to a second actor in this woodland drama. - -When the poker players broke for cover, Michigan Red had paused long -enough to pocket the stakes along with his winnings, then picking up the -blanket he walked over to the cook-house, and had watched all from the -angle formed by the jutting corner logs. "A bit closer would have -suited better," he had grumbled, as Carter's last rush carried him from -under the hoofs. Now he commented: "Going to rope him, are you? Not if -I know it." Knowledge of his fellows' liability to lapses of -hero-worship inhered in his conclusion. "If there's to be gran'stan' -plays I'll make 'em myself." - -"Fools!" he snarled, as the beat of feet warned him that the strikers on -the roof were watching Carter, who had taken position behind the next -corner. He heard also the swish of the circling noose, its quickened -whir as the horses swooped around on the next lap; then, just as the -band passed, he sprang out, uttering a sudden harsh command, directly in -the stallion's path. - -A desperate play, it drew gambler's luck. A frontier superstition has -it that the equine eye magnifies objects, and whether or no the red -teamster with his pale-green face loomed in the stallion's sight as some -huge and passionate fiend, he reared back on strung haunches, ploughing -the sod in a desperate effort to stop; and while he hung in mid-air, -Michigan stepped and threw his blanket, matador-fashion, over the ugly -head. As the brute settled on all-fours and stood shivering, Michigan -turned, grinning, to reap the fruit of his daring. - -But his grin quickly faded, for, flashing on to his purpose, Carter had -swung and roped the rat-tailed mare, the stallion's mate, as the band -flew by. Worse! Michigan choked. Almost every man in camp had a grudge -against the mare, some vicious lunge or graze from her snapping teeth, -so a dozen strikers had jumped and were helping Carter to choke her -down, while the others cheered them on with approving laughter. - -Furious, he yelled: "What's the matter with you chaps up there? Taken -to roosting like chickens? I'd like a picture of the bunch, it ud pass -anywhere for a Methodist convention. An' you fellows quit yanking that -mare. 'Tain't tug-o'-war you're playing." But he made small headway -against the uproarious tide of yells and laughter, and, remembering his -snub, Carrots Smith shouted back, "She's doin' most of the pulling, an' -if she wants to hang, why let her." - -Worst of all, it was Carter who finally interfered on behalf of the -struggling brute, and Michigan chafed at the ready obedience accorded -his orders. - -"Thought you fellows was on strike?" he growled at Brady, the Irish -teamster, as he retied the stallion in the horse lines. - -But wrathfully indicating a bloody bruise on his own horse, the Irishman -hotly retorted, "Faith, thin, an' that's no sign that we'll be lettin' -them murthering brutes av yourn chew the necks av our teams? If they -was mine, I'd make wolf-meat av the pair before supper." - -Michigan sneered. "Didn't I ketch him myself? An' then you fellows had -to go running your legs off to suit him. Keep it up, an' it's you an' -your strike that'll be made into hash for his supper." - -While Michigan thus tried to scotch incipient sympathy with rough -sarcasm, Carter carried with him to the office the comfortable assurance -that fortune had turned down to him this accidental trick in a difficult -game. Shrugging deprecation of Hart's admiring comments on his skill -with the riata, he returned a reminiscence of his cowpunching days to -Smythe's chidings, asserting that the stallion was not a circumstance to -a long-horn steer on an open prairie. While talking, he helped to -arrange the contents of Smythe's grip on the rough table, piling -greenbacks by denominations between flanking columns of silver, an -imposing array. - -"No hurry," he said, when Hart asked if he should call the men, and, -lighting a cigar, he drawled a story which at one time explained his -reason and illumined his plan. "I remember a kid who won three sizes -out of his class by a little judicious waiting. His dad had set him a -spading stint in the back lot, and when this other boy brings-to on the -sidewalk and begins to heave belligerencies over the fence, he answers, -that calm and deliberate that you'd never think he was burying his heart -under every spadeful, 'Jes' you wait till I finish my patch.' And he -goes on digging so cheerfully that the other kid is a mite staggered. -As I say, he was about three sizes to the good, but as you'll remember, -Napoleon's Old Guard could put it all over a young lady's seminary for -hysteria if it was kept too long waiting. Watching that slow spade, this -lad's imagination went to working so hard that he fought that fight -thirteen times in as many minutes, and felt that used up he just ran -like a March hare when the other kid stuck his spade in the trench. The -wise kid?" He twinkled on Hart. "I was that glad, I played hookey from -school an' won a licking from the old man five sizes larger than I'd -have got from the boy. But it was worth it. I learned that it always -pays to give it time to soak in." - -Outside the strikers furnished a vivid illustration of that lesson -during the next three hours he kept them waiting. Grouping, they made -loud mouths at first, over supposititious wrongs or affected -indifference that was belied by uneasy glances officeward. Less -loquacious at the end of the first hour, the second left them sullen and -silent; the third, eaten by suspense. They started, as at a sudden -explosion, when Bender finally came out; stared blankly when he -announced that the boss was waiting to pay off the camp. - -Affording no time for recovery, Hart called the first name on the -pay-roll, and Bender's stentorian bass sent it rolling into the woods. -"Anderson! Anderson! Hurry up, Anderson!" - -The name chanced to be the property of Bill, the spokesman, but though -used as little as his Sunday clothes, there was more than unfamiliarity -behind his slowness. More tenacious of idea, as aforesaid, than quick -of wit, Bill now found himself without plan, precedent, or time for -counsel in these unexpected premises, nor could he draw inspiration from -the blank looks of his fellows. - -"Hurry up, Anderson!" Bender crossly repeated; and starting as though -touched in some secret spring, Bill lurched forward and in, and so found -himself facing Carter, Hart, and Smythe behind an awesome financial -array. - -Never before had Bill seen so much money at once--even in dreams; it -totalled more than the hard earnings of his forty-odd years; would have -paid his mortgage ten times over. The substance of modern power, its -glitter challenged the loud-mouthed assertions of him and his fellows -that, given the same luck, they could have done as well as Carter. By -the light of its golden glow, Bill saw himself very weak and small and -foolish. At home he seldom saw a dollar; had trouble in scraping up -currency enough to pay his taxes, and effected his barterings at the -store in truck and trade. With his doubts settled as to the solvency of -the firm, Bill was suddenly afflicted with a suspicion that he had made -the biggest kind of a fool of himself. - -Correctly interpreting his glance at the table, Carter gave him a genial -smile. "Yes, Bill; but you don't get it by laying off. Here's your -bit. Touch the pen and-- Five dollars short? Board and feed for five -days, Bill. Man earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, you know. Pass -on, and don't forget to remember me to your wife when you gain home." - -As with Bill, so the others. Filing in, they testified, one by deeper -sullenness, others by attempts at a swagger, to the influences which had -wrought on him. Few attained the easy insolence of Michigan Red, who -demanded an itemized account of his store bill and insisted on signing -the roll with his own hand. Touching the pen, railroad fashion, they -passed out, while Hart signed for them, to add their doubtings to the -general mystification. - -What was forward? Had Carter obtained new crews, or would the company -close down work? As the line still fell thirty miles short of the -northern settlements, the latter thought filled the minds of the Silver -Creek men, who saw themselves left marketless by their own act, with -sick misery; brought pause to their envious cupidity, despite Michigan's -assurances that it was all a bluff. - -"'Tain't," Bill Anderson contradicted him. "I was just over to the -cook-house for a drink, an' the cook has orders to serve no meals after -breakfast to-morrow morning." - -"That so?" a dozen voices questioned. - -"Ask for yourselves. He's at the door now calling to supper." - -And the cook confirmed the report, adding, moreover, his mite to their -discomfiture by malignantly animadverting upon the menages to which they -were about to return. "My cooking don't suit, eh?" demanded the -offended artist. "It's pertatoes an' sow-belly for yours after this. -In a month you won't be able to tell your ribs from a rail corral." And -truth so flavored his railings that they saw, in fancy, themselves -looking back from their prairie farms upon his rude but plentiful -fleshpots--at which ripe moment the door opened to admit Carter, Smythe, -and Bender. - -Pausing at the end of the centre table, Carter glanced over the rows of -faces which turned curiously up to him as on the occasion that marked -the beginnings of his fight for mastery in the cook-house at the winter -camp. Very fittingly, setting and persona for this last act of a long -struggle were almost the same as the first. Hines and the Cougar, to be -sure, were gone over the Great Divide. Strangers sat in place of Shinn -and the handful that returned to their farms after the log-drive. But -here were the tables, a-bristle with tinware; dim lanterns, dependent -from the low pole-roof; the faces, peering from Rembrandt shadows, -fiercely animal, pregnant with possibilities such as have reddened the -snows of many a forest camp. Overlooking them now, at the climax of a -year-long play, he could not but thrill to the thought that whereas they -had opposed him at every turn, those iron _impresarios_, the Fates, had -left choice of endings with him, author of the drama. It was his to -crush or spare--to crush and gain the cringing respect which they -accorded to frost, drought, pestilence, stern henchmen of the -illimitable; to spare and attain next place to a fair potato-crop in -their esteem; to manage them for their and his own good. - -To the latter end he bent his words, addressing them, half jocularly, in -their own argot. "Well, boys, we've played our game to a finish, but -before we throw away the deck let's count tricks. I don't blame you for -striking. You have a right to sell your labor in the dearest market as -I have to buy mine in the cheapest. You simply asked more than I felt -able to pay, so while you rested I took a jaunt down to the States to -see how you stood on the market. What did I find? First let us take a -look at your hand. - -"What do you hold? Harvest is half over and the wheat farmers from the -Portage to Brandon and down to the Pipestone have hired their help at -two dollars a day. No betterment there. You can't break prairie in the -fall, so there's nothing at home except eating, and the lumber-camps -don't open up before the snows. On the other hand, your stake in this -line is as big as mine. Unfinished, you are without the markets you have -been shouting for these years; finished, it lets in American competition -and trebles your values in land." Pausing, he shook his head, and -smiling, went on: "Looks as if some one had dealt you a miserable hand, -and I wonder if it wouldn't pay you to shuffle, cut, and try another -deal? Now before I bring in new crews--" - -"New crews? Where kin you get them?" - -All through the men had given close attention, and after a single -impatient glance at Michigan Red the faces turned back to Carter, who -ignored the interruption. Leaning eagerly forward, they took the words -from his mouth as he ran on roughly outlining his own plans, prospecting -the coming years. Few of them, perhaps none, were given to looking -beyond the present, and the vista to which he turned their dull eyes -glimmered like sunshine on the prairies. This was to be no casual job! -The province, ay, and the whole Northwest, required branch roads; would -be gridironed with them before the finish! So what of construction in -summer, logging in winter, they could look for profitable employment the -round of the seasons! - -"So talk it over among yourselves," he finished, "and those who feel -that a fresh deal is in order can call round at the office after -supper." - -Long before that, nods and approving murmurs had testified to his -victory, and as the burr of hot tongues followed them out through the -open windows, Bender exclaimed: "Whipped to a finish! But what about -them new crews?" Then catching Carter's grin, he burst out in -uproarious laughter. "What a bluff!" - -"Not a man in Minneapolis," Carter confirmed. "But that wasn't what we -went down for. So it didn't matter." - -"But will they believe it?" Smythe asked. - -"Believe it?" Bender took it upon himself to answer it. "A frightened -man will run from his shadow, an' they're that badly scared 'twon't take -them five minutes to locate them crews." - -He gave them, indeed, too much time, for, as he said, fear destroys -perspective and the strikers were almost ready to believe that Carter -could conjure men from the trackless forest. - -Carrots Smith led the panic with a theory, even as he had headed the run -from Michigan's horse. "Said he'd been prospectin' down in the States? -Minneapolis, I'll bet you, an' the place jes' rotten with whaleback -Swedes." - -"Sawyer's gang is through with the N.P.'s Devil's Lake extension," -another added. "I read it in the paper Sunday. Old Sawyer ud on'y be -too glad for a chance to finish out the fall." - -Other theories were not wanting, nor could Michigan Red stem the rout. -Just twenty minutes thereafter a sheepish delegation presented itself at -the office door and delivered itself through the mouth of Bill of the -Anderson ilk. - -"We've concluded," said Bill, "as 'twouldn't hardly be right to leave -you ditched." - -Albeit Carter's eyes returned Hart's twinkle, he replied in kind. "I'm -real tickled to think that you won't desert me." - -And so, with this bit of diplomatic comedy, ended not only the strike, -but also the bitter fight which he, like every village Hampden, had had -to wage against the envious ignorance of his fellows. For a while, to -be sure, their stiff necks would balk at the homage secret consciousness -dictated as his meed. They would refuse it, indeed, till the world -outside sealed his success; whereafter every man of them would proclaim -himself as the particular prophet who had discerned greatness in his -humble beginnings. But in the mean time they would refrain from further -hostilities. - -"What about that Red man?" Smythe said, as the delegation made its -jubilant way back to its fellows. "You'll surely discharge _him_?" - -"Michigan Red?" Carter said. "Not if he wants to stay. His team is -worth any two in camp, and his teeth are drawn for good. But he won't -stay." - -"That's a cinch," Bender echoed. "He's due in Winnipeg to report his -failure sometime in the next three days." - - - - - *XXX* - - *FIRE* - - -Dawn saw the strikers going about their chores with a cheerful alacrity -that was as gall to Michigan Red, who chewed the bitter cud of -unsuccessful leadership as he sat drumming his heels on a block by the -cook-house door. He had come to the end of his rope--rather, dangled -there, an object of contemptuous pity in the eyes of his fellows. Had -he doubted the fact, it was to be easily read in their studied -avoidance; but he knew that he had failed--in what? He could hardly -have answered the question himself; for whether or no he had plotted in -the monopoly's interest, the strike was merely incidental to the -persistent war he had waged against Carter, to the dogged opposition -which had root in the turbulent anarchism of his nature. Sufficient -that though his weird face held its usual bleak calm, he writhed, -mentally, under defeat, while the few who ventured within range of his -tongue sensed the lava beneath the crust. - -"Not with this crowd. I draw the color line," he rasped, when Anderson -inquired if he were not going to work, while Carrots Smith drew a curse -along with the information, "It's me for a better job. I'm tired of -herding sheep." So now he was left strictly alone, though speculative -glances travelled often his way. - -"He's waiting for the boss," a teamster remarked to his neighbor. "Say, -I'd like to see 'em at grips!" - -"Rather him nor me," the other said, expressing general opinion. "The -boss is a tough proposition. They say he beat Shinn up so badly that -he'll never be more 'n half a man again. Red ain't no slouch, though. -Bet you I'd like to see it." - -However, as tools had to be reissued and a hundred details despatched, -the men were all at work before Carter could come to breakfast, so only -Smythe and the cook witnessed that meeting. - -It was a beautiful day. Already the heat fulfilled the prediction of a -torrid sunrise, and, like an egg in a pan, the camp fried within the -encircling spruce which, on their part, seemed to lift over surrounding -birch and poplar as though tiptoeing for cooler air. The same errand -had brought the cook out from the bowels of his own particular inferno, -and as certain phases of the encounter could not be set forth in choicer -terms than those in which he delivered himself to an interested audience -that evening, now let him speak. - -"I was sitting in the doorway, that close to Red I could have pulled his -ear, when the boss kem along. Stopping opposite, he looked down on Red -with eyes dark and steady as night. They're blue, you know, by rights, -but they seemed to darken to pure black, an' I never felt him so tall -before. - -"'Well, Red?' he says, quiet, like that; but Red's eyes stayed down, -though his lip lifted clear of his corner teeth like you've seen a -trapped coyote, and so the pair of 'em remained for a full three -minutes." - -Imagine them--the greenish face of the one reflecting murderous passion, -troubled as waves on shaken acid; the other darkly silent, yet, for all -his quiet, oppressing both Smythe and the cook with the loom of imminent -death. So was fought out the silent duel of personalities--one minute, -two; at the third, sweat broke profusely upon the teamster's face, and -the cook breathed once more. Burning with Cain's lust, his glance -travelled but once above the other's knee, to fall as quickly again. - -"What's the matter, Red?" Smythe actually started as Carter's voice -broke on the quiet of the camp. "Quitting? What for?" - -"No, it isn't _exactly_ my business," he cheerfully answered the -teamster's growl. "If you will, you will." Turning back after -entering, he added: "Heading for Winnipeg, I suppose? Then give my -compliments to Friend Buckle and tell him to please hand them higher -up." - -When he came out Michigan was still there, but Carter passed without a -glance, and led Smythe down the right of way into the forest. Even then -Michigan sat on. It was, indeed, almost noon before he loafed over to -the horse lines, after refusing the cook's invitation to wait for -dinner. Without returning a word of thanks for the grub-sack which the -latter sent over by a cookee, he hitched to his wagon and drove slowly -away. - -A week's rest had freshened the blacks so much that, if given their -heads, they would have covered half the distance to Winnipeg that day. -But he took a vicious pleasure in balking their inclination. Jerking -the bits, which hinged on a cruel curb, he pulled them down to a -nervous, teetering walk. - -For a while the trail paralleled the right of way, then swung on a wide -arc around a morass, and for an hour thereafter ran alternately among -sloughs, sand-hills, muskegs, through a country indescribably desolate -and which teemed with savage life. Myriad frogs set his ears singing -with dismal, persistent croaking; a pole-cat scuttled across the trail, -poisoning the dank air. From brazen skies a hawk shrieked a malediction -upon his head; his horses threw up their heads, snorting, as a lynx -screamed a long way off. Here, too, dark woods shut off errant breezes -and he fell a prey to a curse of sand-flies that stung and envenomed his -flesh. There was no escape. They settled, by hundreds, on the hands -that wiped them off his face; stung his face as he slapped his hands. - -Coming back, mad with pain and rage, from this detour, his eyes drew to -a trestle--longest, highest, most expensive of Carter's works--and, -reining in, he allowed his glance to wander lustfully over the stout -timbers which his fancy wrapped in flame. A single match--but reason -urged that the embers would undoubtedly furnish red lights for his -hanging, and he drove on, hotter, madder for the restraint. He was ripe -for any mischief that offered a running chance of escape, when, midway -of the afternoon, he came on wheel-tracks that swung at right angles -from the trail into a chain of sloughs. - -"Red River cart," he muttered, noticing the wide gauge; then, furiously -slapping his thigh, "Carter's Cree, by G--!" - -He meant the Indian who had brought in the venison which formed the -tidbit at Dorothy Chester's first meal in camp. All through the summer -he had come in with deer-meat twice or thrice a week, but though -Michigan and other teamsters had searched for his tepee during the idle -days of the strike, no one had penetrated to the woodland lake where his -squaw--a young girl, handsome, as Indian women go--was free from rude -glances, safe from insult or worse. Now the trail lay, plain as a -pike-road, under Michigan's nose; and, leaping down, he tied his team to -a tree and followed it along the sloughs. - -Through a gully, patch of woodland, the tracks led into a second long -slough, and presently debouched on the strand of a small lake, one of -the thousands that gem that black wilderness. Bird-haunted in spring, -lonesomeness now lay thick upon it. Uttering its weird cry, a loon rose -on swift wing, angling in its flight over the tepee, whose bull's hide, -raw, smoke-blacked, harmonized with that savage setting. - -Just then Michigan was in fettle to exact a vicarious revenge. Early in -summer Carter had nipped a disposition on the part of his men to joke -and make free with the Indian, giving strict orders that he was to be -unmolested, coming or going. This girl who lived in his protecting -shadow would have fared ill at Michigan's hands. But the tepee flaps -were thrown wide, and though he strained his eyes from a covert of tall -reeds, he saw no sign of her, without or within. Save the lipping of -waters, sough of a rising wind, no sound broke the solitude that guarded -this, the lair of primitive man. Only those who have experienced its -frightful loneliness can know how terrible a northern solitude can be; -how awesome, oppressive. Some note of it caused the teamster to speak -aloud, heartening himself with sound of his voice. - -"They'll be back to-night, sure, for the ashes is banked over the -embers." - -Gaining back to his team, he drove on a scant quarter-mile, then turned -into a slough parallel to those he had just left, and which had its end -in a wooded dell. Here high banks would have effectually screened a -fire, yet he endured mosquitoes till dusk smothered his smudge. Then -tying his team in the thick of its reek, he cut across the intervening -bush and followed, as before, along the slough chain till he saw a dim -cloud quivering on the blackness ahead. - -Beneath this, smoke from the Cree's fire, presently appeared a rich -incandescence, and after worming the last yards on the flat of his -belly, Michigan peered from thick sedge out at the Cree woman, who sat -and suckled her child by the fire that enriched the bronze of her bosom -with a blush from its glow. A free, wild thing, her deep eyes now -caressed her child, again searched the fire's red mystery, giving back -its flame as forest pools reflect a hunter's flare; sombre and silent, -eons of savagery flickered in her glance. - -From her the watcher's evil face turned to the Cree, who was skinning a -deer that hung by the hams from a poplar crotch. The heavy, clammy odor -of fresh blood hung thick in the air, filled his nostrils as he lay, -like primitive man by the mouth of his enemy's cave, watching the knife -slip around the carcass. Savage could not have been more wicked of -intent. Again and again his hand gripped his own knife, always to fall -again at sight of the rifle that leaned against the Red River cart, -close to the Indian's hand. And thus he waited, baleful glance -flickering between man and woman, till the deer was dressed and loaded -upon the cart. - -That modified without changing his purpose. "Going to camp first thing -in the morning," he thought, as he crawled away. "Always goes alone." - -Back once more with his team, he kicked the wet grass from the smudge, -and after eating ravenously of the cook's provision by its flame, he -spread his blankets and lay down, head propped on his hand, back to his -team. He did not sleep; simply stared into the fire, or listened to the -varied voices of the night. Now there would be a sighing, breathing -among the trees, creaking of branches, soft rustlings. Then the night -would talk loudly on a hush as of death--a loon laughed at the owl's -solemn questioning, a fox barked among the sand-hills; the boom of a -bittern came in from some dark lake; he heard the lynx scream again, -loudly, shrilly, as a tortured child. Then the wind again, or a greater -hush in which he heard only the crackling of his fire as he replenished -its dying flame. - -On these occasions a long trail of sparks would fly upward, and one, a -tiny ember, at last wrought a strange thing. Passing over and behind -him, it nested in the frazzle of tow at the knot of the stallion's -frayed halter; where it smoked and glowed, growing larger, brighter. -Lowering his ugly head, the beast sniffed at the strange red flower, -then backed away as it burst into a bouquet of flame under his coaxing -breath. - -"Stan' still!" Michigan growled, without, however, looking around. - -The stallion stood--till the end of the burned rope dropped to the -ground. - -Even then some time elapsed before he realized that he was free; but -when he did--he turned white, wicked eyes on the resting man. Was that -short worm the fiend that had ruled him? He stepped. - -"Stan' still!" Michigan growled again. - -The familiar voice gave the stallion pause--a moment. For, out of the -tail of his eye, Michigan presently saw and became cognizant of a most -curious thing--of a shadow, huge, black, upreared above himself. - -Uttering a hoarse cry, he tried to rise--too late. - - -So, in the midst of his turbulence, passed Michigan Red, but the evil -that he had done mightily all the days of his life followed him into -death, for the pounding hoofs spread embers of his fire over a leafy -carpet, where the night wind found them. Leaping under its breath, -small flames writhed tortuously across the glade to the thing that had -been a man--touched and tasted its clothing with delicate lickings, then -flashed up and sprang from the smouldering cinder into thick scrub, and -so ran with incredible swiftness through the forest. Crouched, like a -runner, at first, close to the ground, it suddenly straightened and -bounded high over a patch of dry poplar burned by a former fire, cowered -again, to crawl through thick green spruce, and so stole softly on, as -though to catch the Cree in his sleep. - -As well try to singe a weasel. Already the Cree was urging his ragged -pony, with squaw and papoose, towards Carter's camp, and, balked there, -the fire swung with the veering wind into poplar woods, and flamed on, a -roaring, ebullient tide, overtopping the tallest trees. Under its -effulgence, black lakes and sullen tarns flashed out of thick night with -scared deer, belly-deep in the water. Huge owls went flapping through -the smoke, leading the ducks, geese, vagrant flocks of the night, -leaving hawks and other day birds to circle, shrieking, ere they whizzed -down to a fiery death. Gaining strength from its own draught and the -freshening wind, it flowed, at an angle, over the railroad and poured -down both sides, licking up bridges, trestles, culverts, leaving the hot -rails squirming like scorched snakes in empty space; and so, about -midnight, roared on to the great trestle at which Michigan had paused -that afternoon, and where Carter had lined up his men. - -Roused by the Cree from a dream of Helen to a nightmare of flaming -skies, Carter first sent out a gang under command of Hart and Smythe to -back-fire around the camp, then loaded the remaining crews on flat-cars -and raced the fire down to the trestle. Bender, who was with him in the -engine-cab, leaned to his ear as the train pulled out of the cut. - -"Michigan Red?" - -"Looks it." Nodding, Carter turned to watch the rails which gleamed -under the sky-glow, running like scarlet lines on black ribbon between -dark, serried ranks of spruce. "Lucky it is coming at an angle," he -said, as the engine thundered over the first bridge. - -Bender raised his big shoulders. "If the wind don't shift? But it -generally does about this time o' night. If she slips to the -east--p-s-st! a puff of steam, a crackle, an' we're gone up like flies -in a baker's oven." - -Carter returned his shrug. "As good a way as any." He added, grimly -smiling: "And very fit. Give us a chance to get acclimated. But with -luck we ought to be able to wet her down and pull out south. Without it -we can lie down in the creek." - -"I like mine wet," Bender grinned. "Drowning ain't exactly comfortable, -but if there's to be any preference I'll take it." And in the face of -danger and disaster, Carter smiled again. - -Starting out, it had seemed a toss-up between them and the fire, but the -train rolled over the trestle and drew up in a cut on the southerly -side, a quarter-hour to the good. The creek ran under the northerly -end, with a short approach to the bank, the bulk of the trestle leading -over a quarter-mile of morass to firm ground; so Carter, with Bender, -Carrots Smith, and other half-dozen, dropped buckets from the bridge to -the stream, thirty feet below, and passed them to the men who were -strung along the plates. Dipping, drawing, dashing, they worked -furiously under the glare of the conflagration. While still half a mile -away, its heat set the trestle steaming. At a quarter of a mile, the -furious draught rained embers large as a man's hand upon the men, who -turned their faces away from the blistering heat. Casting uneasy glances -over humped shoulders, they began to increase their distances, edging -along the south approach towards the train; but as they still maintained -communications, neither Carter nor Bender took notice until they -suddenly broke and ran. - -"Here! Come back!" Bender's angry roar drowned Carter's shout, and was -lost, in turn, in a shrill whistling; for the engineer had seen that -which had been hid from them. - -"My God!" Carrots Smith cried; and Brady broke out in whimpering prayer -to the saints. - -They stood, staring. - -As aforesaid, the fire was running south and westerly at an acute angle -to--in fact, almost paralleling the railroad, with its extreme point -farthest away but already beyond the trestle. And now, veering swiftly -southeast, as Bender had feared, it swung at right angles and came -broadside on, a fiery tide high over the forest. To the engineer it -seemed that the wind lifted a mass of flame and threw it bodily into a -tangle of poplar-brake, red willow, tall reeds, and sedge at the -trestle's south end. Dry, explosively inflammable from a summer's heat, -it touched off like a magazine, whirling skyward, a twisting water-spout -of flame, and as he jerked wildly on his whistle he saw, as under the -calcium of lurid melodrama, men running like wingless flies along the -wet, black trestle. Careening, the column fell across them. - -Only the few who were drawing with Carter escaped that first explosive -flame, and they gained only time to jump as the main fire came hurdling -over the trees. Falling, Carter saw the stream, blood-red; jagged rocks -rising swiftly to meet him. A flash blinded his eyes, then-- - - -He rubbed them--that is, he winked, for he was far too weak for such -robust exercise. Yes, he winked it. Was--could that be Helen's face -bending low over him? - - - - - *XXXI* - - *WHEREIN THE FATES SUBSTITUTE A CHANGE OF BILL* - - -Carter winked again. The face, however, did not move. On the contrary, -it lit up with sudden delight and said smile helped his limping -consciousness forward to the idea of a dream. Yes, he was dreaming, -undoubtedly dreaming! No! Here memory took hold and gave him back the -flaming forest; wet rocks, rising swiftly from red water, carried him -back and left him at the precise moment that he had struck a projecting -timber. He was falling! Involuntarily he stiffened, expecting the -shock ... but--ah! a clew! He was dead--of the fall; and this? Must be -heaven, or why Helen? _If_ t'other place? 'Twas not so bad as long as -she was there! Here his eye, through removal of the face, touched the -whitewashed ceiling, then wandered to blank walls, a stand with -medicine, covered glasses and spoons, a linen-press, two chairs--he -arrived at truth, a hospital! Then, tired out by these strenuous mental -exercises, his eyes closed once more, to the ineffable relief of the -anxious watcher, and sleep, natural sleep, replaced the coma that had -held him these two days. - -For a while Helen listened to his breathing, then, once sure that he was -really asleep, she tiptoed out to the corridor and, under urge of -relief, ran, fairly flew, with her good news to the head doctor's -office. For these had been days of haggard waiting, as, for the matter -of that, had the last two weeks--Bender's battles, Carter's triumph, the -strike and forest fire had all been packed into ten short days. - -Beginning at the morning after she saw Carter at dinner with the general -manager, her joyful prayer had gone with the jubilant roar of press and -people at the ceding of the crossing, and for several following days her -ears drank thirstily of the plaudits which were universal in the -hospital, on the street, at her boarding-house. When, indeed, the topic -cropped up at her first operation, her fingers trembled so over a -bandage that Carruthers excused her, thinking the sight of blood had -turned her sick. At Jean Glaves's table she had to veil the eager -exultance of her eyes. The merchants who were discussing competition in -freight rates on the street would have stared could they have heard the -heart-cry of the pretty nurse then passing. - -"He did it! Yes, he is very clever--all that you say! But you cannot -have him, for he is mine! I'll lend him to you--for a while! But I -must have him back! He's mine! mine! mine!" - -From breathing the rare atmosphere of these exalted heights, she had -been precipitated by the strike into bottom deeps of despair, and while -agonizing therein over additional rumors of Greer & Smythe's impending -failure, a morning paper came to her breakfast-table with six-inch fire -scareheads and a long tale of burns, bruises, breakages that would have -been longer but for the softness of the morass. Carter, Bender, Brady, -Carrots Smith, all who were on the trestle, had been more or less -injured; and six bridges, five trestles, dozens of culverts had gone up -in smoke, a maleficent memorial to Michigan Red, before the -conflagration back-fired itself out among labyrinthian lakes. But she -paused not at the tale. The injured were on the way to the hospital, and -with that piece of news clutched to her bosom she ran all the way and -broke, at one time, a rule that was as the law of the Medes and Persians -and the privacy of the head doctor's study. - -It will be easily seen that under such circumstances her hysterical -gaspings were not exactly informing, but a man does not attain to -headship of a hospital without ability to extract truth from obscure -premises--what else is diagnosis?--and when, indicating the heading that -told of Carter's injuries, she gasped, "My husband!" the Head grasped -every detail of the situation. - -"I must nurse him!" she pleaded. "Must! must!" - -A man prodigiously dignified and very solemn behind imposing glasses, -the Head offered a stereotyped objection; but it speaks for the feeling -beneath his dessicated exterior that he eventually set rules and -regulations at defiance, and outraged the discipline and morale -maintained by the Scotch head nurse, by appointing her, a novitiate, to -a capital case. - -"But remember," he said. "Only if you can forget, for the present, that -he is your husband?" - -He did not believe she could, and had been astonished by her quiet, -almost mechanical performance of duty during those two harrowing days. -For he did not see her leaning over the inanimate form when alone in the -ward; her strained watching, desperate listenings for the first flutter -of the returning spirit. Now he did see her flushed delight, and -muttered to himself as Carruthers, the under surgeon, hastened with her -to Carter's bedside: "I suppose I ought to tell _him_! ... What's the -use; he'll hear soon enough." - -So her secret was kept, and being uninformed of the matrimonial -complications in the case, the surgeon set her delighted flutterings to -professional interest and so joined her felicitations. "'Twas touch and -go," he whispered. "Few could stand such a crack on the head; must have -made an omelet of his brains and his fever was hot enough to fry it. -But he'll pull through, Mistress Morrill, and it is good that he will, -for he's a gran' character, fine and useful to the province." - - -To indulge a pleasant conceit, that refreshing sleep may be regarded as -an intimation of the fates that comedy was about to be substituted for -impending tragedy upon the boards; and the opening of Carter's eyes may -very well be considered as the rise of the curtain on the first, and -what would also have been the last, act had he been in the enjoyment of -his usual health and strength. Lacking these, he could only take things -as he found them; chief over all, a demure nurse who administered bitter -draughts or took his pulse without sign of recognition, compunction, or -emotion. - -As her shapely back always hid the pencil when she noted her -observations on the chart, he could not see it tremble; and how was he -to know that the pulse-taking was a sham? That she could feel only her -own heart thudding five thousand thuds to the minute? That she had to -guess the pulse by his temperature, which cardinal crime of the nurse's -calendar was partly condoned, because if she _had_ set down its -vibrations at the moments she held his hand, every doctor in the -hospital would have come running as to a lost cause. - -Ignorant of all this, he could only lie and watch her moving about the -ward, tantalizingly trim and pretty in her nurse's dress; wait till some -softening of her coldness would justify the clean confession he ached to -make. Always the desire was with him and it waxed with the days. But -whether or no she discerned it lurking behind his surreptitious glances, -she afforded no opportunity, and what can a man do against a fate that -nips every approach to the tender with nasty medicine or chill -phrase--"You are not to talk." - -"I believe you like to give me that stuff," he growled one day. - -"Doctor's orders," she severely replied, and her stony face effectually -repressed him while indicating that she was not to be drawn from her -vantage-ground by that or a sudden remark--"It seems strange to see you -in that uniform." - -"Doesn't feel so to me," she coldly answered, adding, with a spice of -malice, "If it did I should get used to it, for I expect to wear it for -the next three years." - -He winced, and he did not see her smile as he gave her his angry -back--that or her droopings over his sleep an hour thereafter. Alone in -the quiet ward, bent so low that her breath moved the hair on his -temples, the occasion vividly recalled the night, long ago, when she had -watched the moon etch with line and shadow the promise of the future -upon his face. It lay there now, under her soft breath, the fulfilment. -For two years stress and struggle had tooled away every roughness and -left the accomplished promise, a man wrought by circumstance to a great -fineness. - -She also had changed--from a well-intentioned if careless girl to a -thoughtful woman. Contact with life in the rough had rubbed the scales -from her eyes and now she saw clearly--many things, but all centring on -one. Outside people were declaiming against the vindictive fate that had -joined with the monopoly against this their champion. That morning's -papers had it that Greer & Smythe were surely ruined. Yet she was glad, -overjoyed. Wealthy and honored, it would have been difficult to the -verge of impossibility for her to go back to him. Always she would have -felt that he might doubt her motives. But now-- - -"It's time to take your medicine!" She sprang up as he opened his eyes, -wondering if he had felt her light kiss. - -Had he, it would have been "curtain" there and then, but as he did not -the play went on, and its sequence proves that, however honorable her -intentions, she had by no means relinquished her sex's unalienable right -to bring things about in its own illogical, tantalizing, perversely -charming way. Drooping over his sleep, hoping that he would wake and -catch her, she took care that he should not--assumed a statuesque -coldness at the first quiver of his eyelids. Undoubtedly, and with her -sex's habitual unfairness, she scandalously abused her position, -exercising a tyranny that was as sweet to herself as mortifying to him. - -"You must not do that--must do this--now go to sleep." She hugged her -power in place of him, and when he achieved a successful revolt against -her ban of silence by appealing to the Head for permission to talk with -Smythe, she revenged herself by injecting a personal interest into her -dealings with Carruthers. It was madness for him to see their heads -close together over his chart; the shining eyes she brought back from -whispered conferences in the hall. To be sure, it was all about pills -and plasters, but how was he to know that? And it was in revenge for -this shamelessly injurious conduct that he arranged the scene which -opens the second act. - -On the morning that he was promoted from spoon-feed to the dignity of a -tray, behold him! head bent, elbows square with his ears, knife and fork -grabbed at their points, proving his indifference to her opinion by the -worst behavior that recent better practice permitted. Alas! he was cast -all through for a losing part. Displaying, before his face, the -irritating curiosity which a child bestows on a feeding lion, she -privately peeped from behind the door-screen, gloated over the old -familiar spectacle. She caught him coming and going. Also she turned a -delighted ear when he dropped into the homely settler speech; listened -for the old locutions; but called his bluff when he overdid the part by -running amuck of the grammar in a manner frightful to behold. - -"I really don't see why you talk like that," she remarked, -patronizingly. "You speak quite well, almost correctly, to Dr. Hammand -and Mr. Smythe." - -"Yes?" he retorted. "I didn't notice. Mebbe you'll correct me if I -side-step it again?" - -But the last case of that man was worse than the first. "Thank you," -she coldly answered. "I have given up teaching school." - -He sniffed sarcastically. "Hum! Shouldn't have known it. I always -heard that the spanking habit stuck through life. But don't give up. -Remember the copybook line, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try -again.'" But she was going out of the door at the time and took care -that he should think she had not heard. "You were speaking?" she -inquired, coming back. And, of course, it would not bear repetition. - -He fared just as illy when, next morning, Bender hobbled into the ward -with the aid of a crutch and cane. Having been visited by the lady -protagonist, the giant was fully informed on the situation and so -achieved a sly wink behind his chief's sarcastic introductions. "Mr. -Bender--Mrs. Morrill." - -Also her quiet answer was disconcerting. "We have met before. Have you -heard from Jenny lately, Mr. Bender?" - -Now Bender had. A letter, small note, simple and direct as Jenny -herself, was even then burning his pocket, and, blushing like a -school-boy caught in the theft of apples, he produced and read it. If -he insisted--was perfectly certain that he couldn't get well without -her--Jenny would! - -"'Fraid I took a mean advantage," he confessed. "Reg'lar cold-decked -her. You see, a busted ankle ain't much to spread on, so I hinted at -complications. She sure thinks I'm dyin,' an' when she comes she'll find -me hopping around." - -"Oh, well." Carter glanced stealthily at Helen. "She has oceans of -time to pay you. With any old luck you are good for eighty-five, and it -doesn't take a loving wife that length of time to get even." For which -insolence he paid instantly and doubly--first by a nasty dose, secondly -by loss of Bender, who was summarily ejected under pretext of its being -the patient's hour for sleep. - -So the war ran, and it did seem as though circumstance never tired of -impressing allies for Helen's cause. Take Dorothy Chester, who called -with Hart next day. She, like Carruthers, could only take the situation -at face values, and so enthused over his luck in nurses; to all of -which--in Helen's absence--Carter subscribed till Dorothy reached her -climax. - -"And Dr. Carruthers thinks so, too. Wouldn't it be nice if they made a -match of it?" - -She was astounded by the heat of his reply. "No! A Scotch dromedary, -suckled on predestination and damnation of infants? Pretty husband he'd -make!" But she solved his vehemence for Hart's benefit on the way home. -"He's in love with her himself." - -"Between patient and doctor? What a mix-up!" Hart laughed. "Odds are -on the doctor if he's up to his job. I'd hate to be Carter on the -chance of an overdose." For which flippancy his ears were well pulled. - -As he said, things were undoubtedly a little tangled, and if at first -glance it would appear that Dorothy had not assisted in the unravelling, -closer scrutiny shows that her remark helped at least to bring affairs -to a head. For the remainder of the day Carter was very thoughtful, so -preoccupied that he forgot to misbehave over his supper-tray while, time -and again, Helen caught him surveying herself with a dark uneasiness. -Puzzled, she came back to the ward before leaving and stood at the foot -of his bed; but as yet his fever was confined to his mind, and he -replied that he was feeling quite well to her question. - -The "good-night" she wished him was not, however, for him. Always -darkness magnifies trouble, and through its black lens he saw suspicions -as facts. Tossing restlessly, he heard the city clock chime the -quarters, halves, hours, until, at twelve, the night nurse's lantern -revealed him wide-eyed, staring, and knowing the efficacy of a change of -thought in producing sleep, she stayed for a chat. - -Correct enough in theory, the treatment proved about as successful as -would the application of a blister upon a sore; for he bent the -conversation to his own uses, steering it by a circuitous route through -the girl's own experience to Helen. - -She was liked in the hospital? - -Indeed she was! The night nurse was emphatic on that, and went on to -say that beauty such as Helen's was not generally conducive of -popularity. No, it wasn't jealousy! The nurse tossed her head at his -question. Simply that pretty girls didn't have to be nice, so usually -left amiability to be assumed with a double chin; and being a frank as -well as a merry creature, she confessed to an accession of that -desirable quality every time she saw her own nose in a glass. But Helen -Morrill? She was sweet as she was pretty! - -Dr. Carruthers thought so, too? - -Well--the nurse would smile! And everybody in the hospital was glad of -it. They would make such a perfect couple, an ideal match! - -It was as good as settled, then? - -Well--not given out yet, but every one knew! Her lantern being on the -floor, she could not see his face, and he lay so quiet she thought he -had fallen asleep, and was tiptoeing away when he spoke again. - -But--_Mrs._ Morrill? She had been married before! Her husband--dead? - -If he wasn't he ought to be--the nurse was sure of that. There was only -one place for a man who could not live with such a nice girl. And if he -were not--divorce was about as good in ridding one of the beast! With -which she picked up her lantern and left him in darkness and despair. -When she came next on her rounds she thought him asleep, but he resumed -his restless tossings as soon as her back was turned. Dawn, however, -betrayed him, and sent her flying to the head doctor with his pulse and -temperature. - -"He was all right last night!" the latter exclaimed. "Bring his chart -down to the office." Studying it while he mixed sedatives a little -later, he said: "Awake at midnight--hum! Talked, did he? What about? -Mrs. Morrill?" He snatched truth out of her as though it had been an -appendix. "Spoke of her and Dr. Carruthers?--ah! ha! Well, give him -this and send Mrs. Morrill to me when she comes in." - -If short, the interview did not lack excitement when, a couple of hours -later, Helen opposed the freshness of the morning to the Head's angry -glare. Her delicate colors, the eyes cleared by sleep and full of -light, were enough to have softened the heart of a Gorgon, but served -only to irritate him, who looked upon them as so much material gone to -waste. - -"What have you done?" he roared after her. "Look at that!" And went on -as her distressed eyes came back from the chart: "You have done -nothing--that's the trouble. Why did I appoint you to this case? -Because of your vast experience? No, because I thought you could -administer something outside of medical practice. And now he's dying--of -jealousy. You have done it; you must cure him." And taking her by the -arm as though she were a medicine-tray, he marched her to Carter's ward, -gave her a shake at the door like a bottle that is to be "well shaken -before taken," and thrust her in with the parting admonition, "Now, do -your duty." - -Here was an embarrassing position! Surely never before had nurse such -orders--to administer love, like a dose, that, forsooth, to a patient -who had already turned his broad back on her charms. Now did she pay -toll of blushes for the perversity that had checked his every overture. -How should--how _could_ she begin? - -Pleating and unpleating her apron, she stood at the foot of his bed, the -prettiest picture of perplexity ever vouchsafed to gaunt, unshaven man. -A week's stubble did not improve his appearance any more than his -unnatural color, fixed, glazed eyes. But soon as a timid glance gave -her these--she was on her knees beside him. - -"Is that you, Helen?" Before she could speak he burst out in a sudden -irruption of speech. "I'm so glad; there's something I want to tell -you." Then it came, in a flood that washed away his natural reserve, -the confession--his remorse for his obstinacy, the sorrow that had tamed -his anger, his yearning through weary months for an overture from her; -his ignorance of the settler's persecution, scorn of scandalous rumors; -his attempts to communicate with and find her; all, down to his -observation of her liking for Carruthers, finishing: "Through all, my -every thought has been of you. But now--I see. It was a mistake, our -marriage. It was wrong to couple roughness with refinement. So if you -wish--" Her face was now buried in her arms, and he gently touched the -golden hair. "Last night I made up my mind to bring no more misery into -your life. But now ... that I see you ... it is difficult; ... but ... -if you wish--" - -He got no further, for speech is impossible when a soft hand stoppers -one's mouth. And while he was thus effectually gagged, she took a mean -advantage: told him just what she thought of him. Such a stupid! A big -man, so very strong, but oh, _so_ silly! Did he really think that -she--any girl--would have waited upon him in such circumstances unless-- -Here she had to release his mouth to wipe away the streaming tears, and -his question came out like an explosion: - -"What?" - -She told him, or, rather, conveyed the information in the orthodox way -with lovers. This takes time, and becoming suddenly alive to the fact -that he was sitting up in bed, she resumed her authority to make him lie -down. In view of his condition she was certainly justified in using -force to compel obedience; but was it right, was it proper for her, a -nurse duly accredited to the case, to leave her arms about him? Well, -she did, and--scandalous predicament!--her golden head was lying beside -his on the pillow when the door opened for the matron, Carruthers, and -the Head on their morning rounds. - -"Well--I declare! _Fine_ goings on!" - -Helen's faint cry of dismay was drowned by the matron's horrified -exclamation, but Carter rose to the situation. "Miss Craig, doctor--my -wife." He could not include Carruthers, who retired precipitously, and -was then just outside the door, swallowing hugely in vain attempts to -get what looked like a monstrous pill, but was really his heart, back to -its proper place. - -"Your what?" Having the general objections to matrimony which come with -prim old maidhood, the matron almost screamed: "Good gracious, man! -Couldn't you have waited till you were sure you wouldn't need a minister -to bury you?" And she tossed a high head at his answer. - -"No, ma'am. We were that impatient we got married two years ago." - -There she slid one in on him with a sniff of disdain. "Two years! Imph! -One would never have thought it. And just look at this ward! Doctors' -rounds and ward unswept, bed unmade; I doubt whether you've had your -medicine! I'll send up another nurse at once. As for you, -Mrs.--Carter"--she paused, flouncing out of the door--"you are--" - -She intended "discharged," but the head doctor interposed twinkling -glasses between Helen and destruction. "She was merely giving treatment -according to orders." - -How the matron stared! "Treatment? Orders? Whose orders, pray?" - -"Mine." - -Her response as she bustled away, "Has every one gone mad!" set them all -smiling, and Carter's remark, "A bit too long in the oven," eloquently -described her crustiness. - -But if long study of people from interior views had left the matron -purblind as to outward signs, sympathies, and emotions, she was not so -short-sighted but that she came to a full stop at the sight of -Carruthers, who stood, hands clinched, like a naughty boy, face to the -wall. - -"You poor man!" But though her tone was gentle as her touch on his -shoulder, he threw her hand fiercely away and strode off uttering an -unmistakable "damn." - -"Another lunatic!" she tartly commented, and was confirmed in that -flattering opinion when, instead of pining in romantic fashion, he fell -in love again and married a sweet girl the following summer. - -Left thus alone in the case, the head doctor nodded his satisfaction at -the patient's decided improvement, while his further instructions were -short as pleasant--"Same treatment, continued at intervals." - -These orders, be sure, were faithfully observed. Indeed, he had scarcely -passed out than--but the next hour is their's, intrusion would be -impertinent. Sufficient that its confidences left each possessed of the -other's every thought and feeling throughout their separation. - -Her eyes dancing, she broke a happy silence to say: "You were dreadfully -transparent. Did you really think I couldn't see through your -misbehavior?" Then she told of how Dorothy had confided to her his -appeal to Hart and efforts at self-improvement. "But," she added, with -a sigh that was almost plaintive, "I wouldn't have cared." - -Also she told him of her proud espionage upon him at the general -manager's dinner; in return for which she learned how he had waited at -the forks of his own trail that winter's night--waited while his ponies -shivered in the bitter wind until he picked hers and Elinor Leslie's -voices from the groan of passing runners. - -She remembered. "Oh, was that you? Why didn't you come in?" - -"I would--at least I think I would have," he corrected, "if you'd been -alone. By-the-way, I saw her in Minneapolis the other day. She was -taking an order from a fat Frenchman in a restaurant where Smythe and I -had turned in for dinner. Luckily her back was turned, so we got out -without her seeing me. But I caught her profile and she looked -dreadfully weak and thin." - -"A waitress?" Helen cried. "Oh, the poor thing! Couldn't you have--" -Pausing, she confirmed his wisdom. "No, it was better she did not see -you." - -Silence fell between them, he thinking of the temptation in the warm -gloaming, she busy with her own memories. Helen's watch beat like a -pulse in the quiet; a house-fly rivalled the full boom of a bee as it -battered its head against the window-pane, a futile illustration of -Elinor Leslie's folly. Just so had she beaten at the invisible barriers -that held her back from free passion. Now she lay, poor soul, bruised -and beaten like a dying moth, wings singed by a single touch of the -unholy flame. - -But sadness could not hold them. Smiling, Helen suddenly relieved -herself of the astonishing remark: "I am so glad you are ruined. Yes, I -am." She nodded firmly, misreading his comical surprise. "Now we can -go back to the farm--just you and I--be ever so happy." - -"Why?" He listened with huge enjoyment to her explanation, then said, -with mock concern, "It would be fine, and I'm that sorry to disappoint -you, but--who said I was ruined?" - -"Oh, everybody--the papers said this morning that--what is that funny -name? Yes, Mr. Brass Bowels--that he had bought up enough of your -liabilities to snow you under." - -"They did, did they? Well--they have another guess coming." - -"Aren't you ruined?" she asked. - -But though he laughed at her naive distress, he refused to say more, -laughingly assuring her that she would not be long in suspense. - - -Nor had she long to wait. For as she was giving him his medicine the -following afternoon, he bobbed up under her hand as though set on wire -springs to the detriment of the snowy quilt, which absorbed the dose. - -"Listen!" - -A whistle, deep-toned, fully two octaves below the shrill hoot of the -monopoly's locomotives, thrilled in the distance. Drawing nearer, its -vibrant bass gave the entire city pause--clerks waited, pens poised for -a stroke; lawyers dropped their briefs; store-keepers, laborers, -mechanics, the very Indians in the camps by the river, stood on gaze; -motion ceased as at the voice of the falked siren; a hush fell in the -streets, a silence complete as that of some enchanted city. - -It carried consternation into the offices of the monopoly, that whistle. -Sparks, the division superintendent, dropped his pen and stared at his -chief, who was giving last orders for the demolition of Greer & Smythe -before he went back East. The latter's iron nerve, however, vouchsafed -only a breathing space to surprise, then he continued in the same dry -tones: "Previous instructions are hereby cancelled. That's an American -whistle, Sparks--Jem Ball for a thousand. They've won out; it's all -over but the shouting." And as eager tumult broke loose in the street, -he added, "And there it goes." - -The shouting? They poured into the streets--doctors, lawyers, clerks, -laborers; carpenters jumped from new buildings, plumbers left their -braziers burning while they swelled the stream that poured out to see -the first train, an engine with Pullman and palace-car, pull in over the -new line. - -Shout? They did--and more. Your canny Canadian is the deil at -celebrating when his backslidings carry him that way, and next morning -many a worthy citizen sweated in thinking back to the cause of his -headache. Ay, good church-members lugged flasks of old Scotch from -blameless-appearing pockets; the carpenter exchanged news and drams with -the millionaire. The N.P. had bought the new road! No, only leased it! -No! no! they were merely to finance the enterprise, market its bonds in -return for reciprocal traffic arrangements! There were other theories, -all spun round a germ of truth, but thence to the source. - -As the siren sounded the second time, Carter looked at Bender, who sat -opposite Helen, having dropped in for a chat, and his remark carries -back to the strike. "Now you know why we went to Minneapolis. What does -it all mean?" His face lit up as he turned to Helen. "It means cars, -locomotives, rolling-stock; the use of N.P. equipment till we can instal -our own. That we can rebuild the burned bridges this fall, and shove a -temporary line through to Silver Creek and the camps in the Riding -Mountains. It means that the Red River Valley will send its wheat south -to Duluth this fall. It means--victory for us, competition for the -province." - -That was his hour, but Helen shared it--even when Greer and Smythe -ushered in the American railway-king. Twin to the general manager in -massive build and strength of feature, he had come from a softer mould. -His eyes, mouth were gentler, more pleasant. In him the high, sloping -forehead--mark of the dreamer--was qualified by the strong jaw, -wide-spaced eyes of the man of practical affairs. A glance told that -here imagination and constructive power went hand in hand. Fun rippled -and ran over innumerable fine facial lines, and he laughed out loud when -Helen made to withdraw, assuring her that their conversation would not -tax her sex's supposed weakness in the matter of secrets as they were -not to talk business. - -"We think too much of this man to bother him with details," he said. -"These gentlemen have attended to everything, and all we require is his -signature to a few papers. Celebrations won't be in order till he's -well enough to run down to St. Paul. Then--well, you'd better not let -him come alone." So, talking and laughing for a pleasant half-hour, he -gave off his superabundant energy until the ward was charged, then went -away leaving the patient stimulated to the verge of open mutiny. - -"I'm as well as you." He defied the Head to his face that evening. -"Send up my clothes." - -"In two weeks, if you are good!" the Head calmly answered. - -"_Two weeks_? I'll be head over heels in work by then, and there is -something I want to do first. I'll be out of here in one." And, albeit -a trifle chalky as to complexion and wobbly of knee, he was. On the -last day-- - -But first the record of that week; and as Bender's bulk overshadows all -else, behold him, mid-week, hobbling into the ward with Jenny trailing -behind like a kitten in the wake of the family house dog. - -"Mrs. Bender, if you please," he corrected Carter, chuckling; and for -once he permitted some one else to do the blushing. Wherein he showed -great taste, as she did it right prettily, exhibiting, moreover, a much -superior article. - -Next day, Dorothy, becomingly mortified because the good news had come -to her through her father out of Smythe. "To hear of it in such a -roundabout way!" she declared. "You little traitor! and when I think of -your speculations about his wife! Positively I had resolved never to -forgive you, but--" Kisses, of course. - -Thereafter, Brady, Big Hans, Carrots Smith--all more or less singed and -nursing various breakages--ostensibly to see the boss, really to take a -look at his pretty wife, whom, they decided, shamed the specifications. - -Then, to everybody's astonishment--indeed, the Head shadowed the man -along the corridor as though he were an anarchist with a bomb in his -pocket--the _General Manager_! brisk, steel-like, yet twinkling. -"Trounced us, didn't you?" he laughed. "Well, one never can tell when -one has made an end. Competition? Perhaps, for a while; but wait till -Jem Ball and I get a bellyful of fighting. However, by that time you'll -be well cured of your desires for the public weal and be ready to listen -to reason. Oh yes, you will! We all take 'em like chicken-pox or -measles, but they are not fatal--unless you get 'em late in life. I -feel so sure of your eventual recovery that I just dropped in to bury -the hatchet. Fifty years won't see the finish of our plans, and -whenever you feel a yearning for fresh enterprises, just look me up." - -Therewith the gray cynic hurried away to plan and scheme, upbuild, tear -down, without slack or satiety of enormous constructive appetite; to -live in travail greater than the labor of woman, and give birth -ceaselessly to innumerable works; to inundate the plains with seas of -wheat and carry bread to Europe's teeming millions; to sow towns, -villages, cities broadcast over the north, make farms for countless -thousands; to join Occident and Orient with gleaming rails, clipper -ships, to do evil consciously all his days and work unconscious good, -crushing the individual for the weal of the race, and caring nothing for -either; to live feared and die respected, leaving the world bigger and -better than he found it. - -Lastly, the cook, just down from the camp with news of Michigan Red. -Flying in front of the fire, the black stallion had come in with the -rat-tailed mare to be shot as a murderer after the Cree had tracked down -the Thing that had been his master; and so, if there be aught in Cree -mythology, the soul of the fierce brute would fight it out once more -with the fiercer man in the place of the teamsters. - -While beguiling the tedium, these tales and conversations failed to -exclude from Carter's ear a distant hammering that attended the building -of his station and freight-sheds. Also he could hear the hoarse -coughing of locomotives going up and down his line. And as the _materia -medica_ contains no tonics like happiness and success, small wonder -that, as aforesaid, he demanded his clothes at the end of the week. - -"Once you get hold of a fellow you are never satisfied till you have -gone all through his clock-work," he replied to the Head's objections. -"But though I sympathize with your industry, you'll have to wait for -another go at mine. They are needed in my business." - -First--Helen with him, of course--he directed his steps, or rather the -wheels of a hack, to the new station where the ring of saws, hammering, -noise and bustle of work, acted upon him like the draught of the elixir -of life, bringing color to his cheeks, stiffness to his knees, sparkle -to his eyes. Thence they drove for a conference to Greer & Smythe's; -whereafter nothing would suit him but a long drive out to the prairies. -It was a strenuous beginning, but fresh air and sunshine are ever -potent. He gained color and strength under her anxious eyes; seemed -fresher when he dropped her at Jean Glaves's house that evening than in -the morning. - -Throughout the happy day they had lived in the present. But though he -had made no plan for the future, she had trusted, and her face lit up -with flashing intuition when he said good-night. - -"Mistress Morrill, you are to take the morning train to Lone Tree." - -This was the "something he wanted to do." - - - - - *XXXII* - - *THE TRAIL AGAIN* - - -Skipping that long if happy night, peep with dawn into Helen's bedroom, -and see her up and singing small snatches of song that presently brought -Jean Glaves, herself the earliest of birds, from bed to assist at the -toilet. Should she wear this, that, or the other? There was the usual -doubt which beset a young lady who wishes to look her best for occasion; -but the result that went forth from big Jean's hug? A vision of healthy -beauty that drew tentative smiles from a brace of drummers and attracted -the stealthy regard of the entire station when she finally broke, like a -burst of sunlight, on the platform. Continuing the figure, the smile, -its crowning asset, faded like the afterglow when her anxious eyes -refused her the tall familiar figure; and when the train pulled out -without him, her disconsolate expression filled the aforesaid drummers -with manly longings towards consolation. - -Unpunctual? On such an occasion? And how silly she would look at Lone -Tree! Slightly offended at first, she then grew alarmed. Perhaps he -had suffered a relapse, was ill, dying! Be sure that her terrors -compassed the possible and impossible during an hour's journey, and not -until she saw a man come dashing across the tracks to the Lone Tree -platform did she realize the fulness of his inspiration. He had taken -the freight out the night before! If thinner, paler, he was very like -the young man who had come to meet her three years ago. There, also, was -the lone poplar that had christened the station; the ramshackle town -with its clapboard hotels, false-fronted stores, grain-sheds, sitting in -the midst of the plains that, flat and infinitely yellow, ran with the -tracks over a boundless horizon. Lastly, there was Nels and his -bleached grin, holding Death and the Devil, sleek, fat, and sinful as -ever. - -Carter's whispered greeting helped to keep her in the past. "Is this -Miss Morrill?" - -"Mr. Carter, I believe?" she had just time for the roguish answer, then -their little comedy had to be laid aside till they were alone on trail. -For the doctor came running from his office, the store-keeper plunged -madly across tracks, Hooper, the agent, yelled, "Well, I swan!" and -jumped to shake hands, while from a grain-shed emerged Jimmy Glaves, who -had taken a lift in with Nels. - -Wasn't she glad to see them? Yet a deeper happiness enveloped her when, -looking back, she again saw Lone Tree, shrunken in the distance, its -grain-sheds looking like red Noah's arks on a yellow carpet; when she -heard only the pole and harness jigging a merry accompaniment to the -beat of quick feet, whirring song of swift wheels. - -It was very like that first occasion. Though stiff night frosts were -now giving timely notice of winter's chill approach, the clerk of the -weather had made special arrangements for a south wind; so it was warm -as on that far day. Birds, animals, scenery, too, all helped to bring -the happy past forward to the happy present, while Death and the Devil, -those wicked ones, fostered the illusion by frequent boltings. Surely -she remembered the ridge where her first coyote had caused her to cling -to Carter, and earned a kiss by repetition of that shameful performance -and faithful mimicry of his accent. "He shore looks hungry." -Immediately thereafter they plunged out from among scattered farms into -the "Dry Lands," but its yellow miles, generally a penance, flowed -unnoticed under the buck-board. They were both astonished when, -suddenly as before, they rattled through a bluff and dropped over the -edge of the valley upon Father Francis at the mission door. - -Nothing would suit but that they must dine with him while Louis, the -half-breed stableman, fed and watered the ponies. But if the good -priest's twinkle expressed knowledge that another of his day's works was -come to fruitage, his quiet converse brought no jarring note into their -communings. - -Undisturbed, they began again at the ford and continued while the Park -Lands rolled in great billows under the wheels. The Cree chimneys, -Indian graveyards, other well-remembered objects passed in pleasant -procession ere, coming to Flynn's, he looked at her. A shake of the -head confirmed his doubt. Another time! So they swept on through vast, -sun-washed spaces where cattle wandered freely as the whispering winds -under flitting cloud-shadows, and so, about sundown, came to their own -place with but a single interruption. - -Passing Danvers at their own forks, he grinned his delight as he turned -out to let them by and shouted after: "Say! I heard from Leslie! He's -doing well on the Rand! Sends regards to both of you!" - -While that bit of good news was still ringing in her ears, the house -flashed out under the eaves of the forest, warm and bright under the -setting sun. All was unchanged--the lake, stained just now a ruby red, -the golden stubble fenced in by dark, environing woods. Within all was -neat and clean as Nels's racial passion for soap and water could make -it. So while he stabled the tired ponies, she donned one of her old -aprons, rolled sleeves above dimpled elbows, and cooked supper; rather a -superfluous performance aside from the grave pleasure he took in looking -on. - -Afterwards they sat on the doorstep, she between his knees, head -pillowed against his breast, and looked at the copper moon that hung in -the trees across the lake--watched it brighten to silver; listened to -the harmonies of the night, the loon's weird alto, the bittern's bass, -cry of a pivoting mallard, owl's solemn choral, a wilder, freer movement -than was ever chained in a stave. Once a snuffle, soft-lapping, drifted -in, and he replied to her start, "Bear-drinking." Otherwise they were -silent up to the moment she arose, shivering. - -"It is getting colder. I think I'll go in." - -He stayed a little longer, stretched luxuriously out on the grass; was -still there when, having made their bed, she came to the door. A vivid -memory gave her pause. Just so had he looked--that night--dark, still, -as the marble effigy of some old Crusader, with the moonlight quivering -about him like an emanation. - -"Are you coming, dear?" Perhaps the memory tinged her tone. Anyway, he -sprang up, arms extended, and as she came running, he lifted her clear -of the ground; carried her in and closed the door. - - -Her shiver had warrant. Within the hour the north wind began to herd -luminous clouds across the moon. At midnight the cabin loomed darkly -through a bridal veil of white. - - - - - THE END - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SETTLER *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43450 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a -registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, -unless you receive specific permission. 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