220CHAPTER XXTHE RETURN TO THE PRAIRIE
We were busy during the two days that followed my return, for there was much to be arranged; but at last all was settled satisfactorily. The surveyor had obtained me free transport back to the prairie for two teams that would not be needed, and Harry had promised to take charge of operations in my place. He was young for the position, or would have been considered so in England, but across the Atlantic much of the hard work is done by very young men, and I could trust his discretion, so only one thing remained to prevent my immediate return to Fairmead. I must see Grace before I went, and after considering the subject at length I determined to ride boldly up to the Colonel’s ranch and demand an interview. Even if this were refused me I should not be worse off than before, and I had found that often in times of uncertainty fortune follows the boldest move.
I rode out under the starlight from our camp, for if all went well I hoped to turn my back on the mountain province by sunset, and if Harry guessed how I proposed to spend the interval he made no direct reference, though he said with unusual emphasis at parting, “I wish you good luck, Ralph—in everything.”
“I’ll second that,” added Johnston, wringing my hand as I bent down from the saddle, for they had walked beside me down the trail; then I shook the bridle and they vanished into the gloom behind. It may have been mere coincidence,221or a conceit of Johnston’s playful fancy, for when I dipped into the valley his voice came ringing after me, “Oh, who will o’er the downs so free! Oh, who will with me ride?”
The next line or two was lost in a clatter of hoofs on shingle, and then once more the words rose clearly above the dewy pines, “To win a blooming bride!” More of the ballad followed, for Johnston trolled it lustily as he strode back to the shanty, and the refrain haunted me as I swept on through the cool dimness under the conifers, for the lilt of it went fittingly with the clang of iron on quartz outcrop and the jingle of steel. It also chimed with my own thoughts the while, and the last lines broke from my lips triumphantly when we raced out of the dusky woods into the growing light under a giant rampart of mountains, behind whose peaks a red flush broadened in the east. The mists rolled back like a curtain, the shadows fled, and the snow, throwing off its deathly pallor, put on splendors of incandescence to greet the returning day. Nowhere does dawn come more grandly than in that ice-ribbed wilderness of crag and forest; but as I watched it then I accepted the wondrous spectacle merely as an augury of brighter days for Grace and myself, and for a last time the ballad echoed across the silent bush as I drove the good horse splashing through a ford.
It was afternoon when, much more sedately, for the beast was tired and I had misgivings now, we splashed through another river into sight of Colonel Carrington’s dwelling, whose shingled roof was faintly visible among the pines ahead; while once more it seemed that fortune or destiny had been kind to me. A white dress moved slowly among the rough-barked trunks, and because a thick carpet of withered needles deadened the sound of hoofs I came almost upon Grace before she saw me. She was gazing at the ground; the long lashes hid her eyes, but I fancied that222a suspicious moisture glistened under them, and there was trouble stamped on her face. Then as I swung myself from the saddle she ran toward me with a startled cry and stopped irresolutely. But I had my arms about her even as she turned half-away, and I said eagerly:
“Something has happened, sweetheart. You must tell me what it is.”
She sighed, and, trembling a little, clung more tightly to my arm when, after tethering the horse, we walked slowly side by side through the shadow of the great fir branches.
“I was longing for you so,” she said. “As you say, something has happened, and there is no one to whom I can tell my troubles. What I feared has happened, for this morning Geoffrey Ormond asked me to marry him.”
“Confusion to him!” I broke out, driving one heel deep into the fir needles; and when Grace checked me, laying both hands on her shoulders, I held her fast as I asked, “And what did you say?”
She smiled faintly as she answered, “This is not the age of savagery, Ralph; your fingers are bruising me. What answer could I give him after my promise to you? I said, ‘No.’”
“Then the folly is done with, and there will be an end to his presumption,” I answered hotly. But Grace sighed again as she said:
“No, this is not the ending. You are fierce and stubborn and headstrong—and I like to have you so; Geoffrey is cool and quiet and slow, and, I must say it, a chivalrous gentleman. I could not tell him all; but he took my answer gracefully, saying he would respect it in the meantime, but would never give up hope. Ralph, I almost wonder whether you would have acted as becomingly.”
Perhaps it was said to gain time; and, if so, I took the bait and answered with bitterness:223
“He has been trained and polished and accustomed to the smooth side of life. Is it strange that he has learned a little courtesy? Again I say, confound him! I am of the people, stained with the soil, and roughened by a laborer’s toil; but, Grace, you know I would gladly give my life to serve you.”
“You are as God and your work have made you,” was the quiet answer; and, drawing closer to me, she added, “And I would not have you otherwise. Don’t lapse into heroics, Ralph. What you did that day in the cañon will speak better than words for you. Instead you must listen while I tell you the whole story. As it was with you and your cousin, Geoffrey and I—we are distantly related too—were always good friends. He was older, and, as you say, polished, and in many ways I looked up to him, while my father was trustee for him under a will, and when he joined the army my father continued, I understand, to manage his property. Still—and I know now that I must have been blind—I never looked upon Geoffrey as—as a possible husband until twelve months ago. Since then my eyes have been opened, and I understand many things—most of all that my father wished it, for he has told me so, and that Geoffrey is heavily interested financially in his ventures. I know that he has sunk large sums of money in the mine, and they have found no ore, while I heard a chance whisper of a mortgage on Carrington. Yet Geoffrey has never even hinted to me that he was more than a small shareholder. My father has grown aged and worn lately, though only those who know him well could tell he was carrying a heavy load of anxiety. He has always been kind to me, and it hurt, horribly, to refuse to meet his wishes when he almost pleaded with me.”
The scent of summer seemed to have faded out of the air, the golden rays that beat in between the great trunks lost their brightness, and only one way of escape from the224situation presented itself to me as again the refrain of the ballad jingled through my memory. It was also a way that suited me. If Grace and I could not be married with the Colonel’s consent, we could without it; and I thanked Providence that she need suffer no actual hardships at Fairmead now, while with her advice and encouragement the future looked brilliant. We could reach the flag station in two hours if we started at once. And then, with a chill, I remembered my promise to the Colonel, and that I stood, as it were, on a parole of honor. Yet a rash promise seemed a small thing to wreck two lives; and, saying nothing, I set my teeth tightly as I remembered hearing my father once say long ago, “I am thankful that, if we have our failings, none of us has ever broken a solemn promise.” Martin Lorimer too—and some called him keen, in distinction to scrupulous—I remembered, accepted a draft he had been clearly tricked into signing, and duly met it at maturity, though, when the affair was almost forgotten, he made the man who drew it suffer. And so the inward struggle went on, until there were beads of perspiration on my forehead and Grace said, “Ralph, you look deathly. Are you ill?”
I did not answer, and was afterward thankful that perhaps fate intervened to save me, for I almost felt that Grace would have yielded to pressure then. There were footsteps in the forest, and, as instinctively we drew back behind a fir, Colonel Carrington walked savagely down an open glade. He passed close to us, and, believing himself alone in that solitude, had thrown off the mask. His face was drawn and haggard, his hands were clenched, and for once I read fear of something in his eyes; while Grace trembled again as she watched him, and neither of us spoke until he vanished among the firs.
“Ralph,” she said quietly, “twice I have seen him so when he did not know it. Perhaps it was meant that this should225happen, for now I know that even were there no other obstacle I could not leave him. Sweetheart, could you expect the full duty to her husband from the woman who had signally failed in her duty to others?”
“No,” I answered with a groan. “But is there no hope in the present?—nothing that I can do?”
She drew my face down toward her as she answered, “Only work and wait, sweetheart,” and her voice sank to a low whisper. “Heaven forgive me if I wrong him in telling you. But there are no secrets between us, and you saw his face. I fear that inadvertently he has lost much of Geoffrey’s money in rash ventures, as well as his own. Geoffrey would never trouble about finance, and insisted on leaving his property in his hands, while, though my father is fond of speculation and control, I am afraid he is a poor business man.”
She shivered all through, and said nothing for a few moments, while I tried to soothe her; then she added slowly:
“I must stand beside him in this trouble; and if the worst comes I do not ask you to leave me—it would be wrong and foolish, and I know you too well. But, though I have read how many women have done such things, I will never marry Geoffrey. It would be a crime to myself and to him, and he is far too good for such treatment. Sweetheart, I must leave you, and it may be so very long before we meet again; but I hope brighter days will dawn for us yet. You will help me to do what I ought, dearest?”
Ten minutes later I rode through the woods at a breakneck gallop, reviling fate and all things incoherently, until, as the horse reeled down an incline amid a mad clatter of sliding shale, Ormond, of all men, must come striding up the trail with an air of tranquil calm about him. There is a certain spice of barbarism, I suppose, in most of us, and in my frame of mind the mere sight of his untroubled face filled me with bitterness. It seemed that, in spite of226her refusal, he felt sure of Grace; and something suggested that a trail hewn at Government expense was free to the wealthy well-born and the toiler alike, and I would not swerve a foot to give him passage. So only a quick spring saved him from being ridden down, while I laughed harshly over my shoulder when his voice followed me: “Why don’t you look ahead, confound you?”
It was possibly well that I had trouble with the teams in the stock car on the railroad journey, and that work in plenty awaited at Fairmead, for the steady tramp behind the plough stilts served to steady me. After three weeks’ endurance, the man I had hired to help mutinied, and stated plainly that he had no intention of either wearing himself to skin and bone or unmercifully overworking dumb cattle, but I found satisfaction in toiling on alone, often until after the lingering darkness fell, for each fathom of rich black clod added to the long furrow seemed to lessen the distance that divided me from Grace. Then little by little a measure of cheerfulness returned, for sun, wind, and night dew had blended their healing with the smell of newly-turned earth, a smell I loved on the prairie, for it told that the plough had opened another channel into treasure locked fast for countless ages. So hope was springing up again when I waited one morning with my wagon beside the railroad track to welcome my sister Aline.
I could scarcely believe my eyes when she stepped down from the car platform, for the somewhat gawky maiden, as I used to term her in our not altogether infrequent playful differences of opinion, when similar compliments were common, had grown into a handsome woman, fair-skinned, but ruddy of color, as all of us were, and I was embarrassed when to the envy of the loungers she embraced me effusively. The drive home across the prairie was a wonder to her, and it touched me to notice how she rejoiced in its breadth and227freedom, for the returning luster in her eyes and the somewhat too hollow face told their own tale of adversity.
“It is all so splendid,” she said vaguely. “A poor lunch, you say; it is ever and ever so much better than my usual daily fare,” and her voice had a vibration that suggested tearfulness. “This is almost too good to be true! I have always loved the open space and sun, and for two weary years I lived in a dismal room of a dismal house in a particularly dismal street, where there was nothing but mud and smoke, half-paid work, and sickening drudgery. Ralph, I should ten times over sooner wash milk-pans or drive cattle in a sunlit land like this.”
I laughed approvingly as she ceased for want of breath, realizing that Aline had much in common with myself; while the rest of the journey passed very cheerfully, and her face was eager with curiosity when I handed her down at the house. She looked around our living room with disdainful eyes.
“It is comfortable enough, but, Ralph, did you ever brush it? I have never seen any place half so dirty.”
I had not noticed the fact before. Indeed, under pressure of work we had usually dispensed with small comforts, superfluous cleanliness I fear among them, and Fairmead was certainly very dirty, though it probably differed but little from most bachelors’ quarters in that region. The stove-baked clods of the previous ploughing still littered the floor; the dust that was thick everywhere doubtless came in with our last thrashing; and the dishes I had used during the last few weeks reposed unwashed among it. But Aline was clearly a woman of action.
“You shockingly untidy man!” she said severely. “Carry my trunk into my room, quick. I am going to put on an old dress, and make you help me clean up first thing. Tired?—after lounging on soft cushions—when I tramped228miles of muddy streets carrying heavy books every day. You won’t get out of it that way. Go away, and bring me some water—bring lots of it.”
When I came back from the well, with a filled cask in the wagon, she had already put on a calico wrapper and both doors and windows were open wide, and I hardly recognized the dwelling when we had finished what Aline said was only the first stage of the proceedings. Then I lighted the stove, and, returning after stabling the horses, found her waiting at the head of a neatly-set table covered with a clean white cloth, which she had doubtless brought with her, for such things were not included in the Fairmead inventory. The house seemed brighter for her presence, though I sighed as I pictured Grace in her place, and then reflected that many things must be added before Fairmead was fit for Grace. I had begun to learn a useful lesson in practical details. Aline noticed the sigh, and plied me with questions, until when, for the nights were getting chilly, we sat beside the twinkling stove, I told her as much as I thought it was desirable that she should know. Aline was two years my junior, and I had no great confidence as yet in her wisdom.
She listened with close attention, and then said meditatively: “I hope that some day you will be happy. No, never mind explaining that you must be—marriage is a great lottery. But why, you foolish boy, must you fall in love with the daughter of that perfectly awful man! There was some one so much nicer at home, you know, and I feel sure she was very fond of you. Alice is a darling, even if she has not much judgment in such matters. Oh, dear me, what am I saying now!”
“Good Lord!” I said, startled by an idea that hitherto had never for a moment occurred to me. “I beg your229pardon; but you are only a young girl, Aline. Of course you must be mistaken, because—it couldn’t be so. I am as poor as a gopher almost, and she is a heiress. Don’t you realize that it’s utterly unbecoming for any one of your years to talk so lightly of these matters.”
Aline laughed mischievously. “Are you so old and wise already, Ralph?” she asked. “Brotherly superiority won’t go very far with a girl who has earned her own living. As you say, I should not have told you this, but you must have been blinder than a mole—even your uncle saw it, and I am quite right.” She looked me over critically before she continued, as though puzzled: “I really cannot see why she should be so, and I begin to fancy that a little plain speaking will be good for my elder brother.”
I checked the exclamation just in time, and stared at her while I struggled with a feeling of shame and dismay. It was not that I had chosen Grace, but it was borne in on me forcibly that besides wounding the feelings of the two persons to whom I owed a heavy debt of gratitude, I must more than once, in mock heroic fashion, have made a stupendous fool of myself. Such knowledge was not pleasant, though perhaps the draught was beneficial, and if plain speaking of that kind were wholesome there was more in store, for hardship had not destroyed Aline’s inquisitorial curiosity, nor her fondness for comments, which, if winged with mischief, had truth in them. Thus, to avoid dangerous subjects, I confined my conversation to my partners and railroad building.
“That is really interesting,” she vouchsafed at length. “Ralph, you haven’t sense enough to understand women; but axes, horses, and engines, you know thoroughly. I’m quite anxious to see this Harry, and wonder whether I could tame him. Young men are always so proud of themselves,230and one finds amusement in bringing them to a due sense of their shortcomings, though I am sorry to say they are not always grateful.”
Then I laughed as I fancied the keen swordplay of badinage that would follow before she overcame either Johnston or Harry, if they ever met, and I almost wondered at her. This slip of a girl—for after all, she was still little more—had faced what must have been with her tastes a sufficiently trying lot, but it had not abated one jot of her somewhat caustic natural gaiety, and there was clearly truth in my partner’s saying: “One need not take everything too seriously.”
When with some misgivings I showed Aline her room she pointed out several radical defects that needed immediate remedy, and I left her wondering whether I must add the vocation of a carpenter to my already onerous task, and most of that night I lay wide awake thinking of what she had told me. When I rose early the next morning, however, my sister was already down and prepared an unusually good breakfast while I saw to the working beasts, though she unhesitatingly condemned the whole of the Fairmead domestic utensils and crockery.
“I am breaking you in gently,” she said with a patronizing air. “You have used those cracked plates since you came here? Then they have lasted quite long enough, and you cannot fry either pork or bacon in a frying-pan minus half the bottom. Before you can bring a wife here you will need further improvement; yes, ever and ever so much, and I hope she will be grateful to me for civilizing you.”
231CHAPTER XXITHE STOLEN CATTLE
I had broken a further strip of virgin prairie, besides ploughing, with hired assistance, part of the already cultivated land, before the Indian summer passed. All day pale golden sunlight flooded the whitened grass, which sometimes glittered with frostwork in early morning, while as the nights grew longer, the wild fowl came down from the north. Aline took a strange interest in watching them sail slowly in endless succession across the blue, and would often sit hidden beside me at twilight among the tall reeds of the creek until with a lucky shot from the Marlin I picked up a brant-goose, or, it might be, a mallard which had rested on its southward journey, somewhat badly shattered by the rifle ball. Then, when frost bound fast the sod and ploughing was done, she would ride with me toward a distant bluff, where I hewed stouter logs than grew near us for winter fuel. Already she had grown fuller in shape and brighter in color with the pure prairie air.
Jasper paid us frequent visits, and seemed to enjoy being badly defeated in a verbal encounter with Aline, after which he would confine his talk to cattle-raising, which of late had commenced to command increased attention on the prairie.
“This is too much a one-crop country. Stake all on your wheat yield, and when you lose it you’re busted,” he said, soon after my return. “Now what’s the matter with running more cattle? They’ll feed themselves in the232summer; and isn’t there hay enough in the sloos if you want to keep them?—while one can generally get a good fall profit in Winnipeg. I’ve been picking up cheap lots all year, and if you have any money to spare I’ll let you in reasonably.”
“You speak like an oracle, Mr. Jasper,” said Aline. “My brother is what you might call a single-crop man. One thing at one time is enough for him. Ralph, why don’t you try a deal in cattle?”
The same thing had been running through my own mind, and the result was that I wrote Harry, who, being of a speculative disposition, arranged for an interim payment, and sent me a remittance, which was duly invested in a joint transaction with Jasper, who had rather over-purchased.
“I’m a little pressed for payments just now,” he said. “Want to hold my wheat, and can’t afford eight per cent. interest. The beasts are fattening all the time, and there’ll be a high-class demand in Winnipeg presently for shipment to Europe.”
He was right; and I began to have a respect for Aline’s judgment when the papers reported that prices were rising fast, and stock-salesman firms sent circulars to this effect into the districts. But, when I conferred with Jasper, he advised me to hold on. “The figures are climbing,” he said, “and they’ll reach high-water mark just before the ice closes direct shipment.”
At last the frost commenced in earnest, and I prepared to settle down for the winter. There were improvements to be made to the granary, implements, harness, and stables, in anticipation of the coming year’s campaign, besides alterations in the house; for I felt that many things might happen before next autumn, and I desired that Fairmead should be more nearly ready if wanted to receive its new mistress.233
Again, however, fate intervened, for, instead of a round of monotonous work, many stirring events were crowded into that winter. The first happened, as usual, unexpectedly, and came nearly ruining our cattle-trade venture. To understand it satisfactorily it is necessary to commence the narrative at the beginning.
It was a chilly night after a warm day. I sat beside the stove mending harness, while Aline criticized the workmanship and waxed the twine for me. The last mail had brought good news from Harry, and I felt in unusual spirits as I passed the awl through the leather, until there was a creak of wagon wheels outside, followed by a pounding on the door.
“It’s too bad,” said Aline. “We are both tired after our ride, and I was looking forward to a chance for giving you good advice, and a cozy evening. Now some one is coming to upset it all.”
She was not mistaken, for when I opened the door a neighbor said, “I’ve brought you Mrs. Fletcher. Met her walking to Fairmead across the prairie. No; I guess I’m in a hurry, and won’t get down.”
It was with no great feeling of pleasure that I led the visitor into the house; and it is curious that as I helped her down from the wagon something should recall Harry’s warning: “That fellow Fletcher will bring more trouble on you some day.”
He had done enough in that direction already, and though I did not wish Aline to hear the story, I was glad she was there, for preceding events had taught me caution. So, making the best of it, I placed a chair beside the stove, for Minnie Fletcher explained who she was, and then, while Aline sat still looking at her with an apparent entire absence of curiosity which in no way deceived me I waited impatiently. Minnie had not improved since I last saw234her. Her face was thin and anxious, her dress—and even in the remoter corners of the prairie this was unusual—was torn and shabby, and she twisted her fingers nervously before she commenced to speak.
“I had expected to find you alone, Ralph,” she said; and though I pitied her, I felt glad that she had been disappointed in this respect. “However, I must tell you; and it may be a warning to your sister. Tom has fallen into bad ways again. He is my husband, Miss Lorimer, and I am afraid not a very good one.”
I could not turn Aline out on the prairie, and could only answer, “I am very sorry. Please go on,” though it would have relieved me to make my own comments on the general conduct of Thomas Fletcher.
“It was not all his fault,” she added. “The boys would give him whisky to tell them stories when he went to Brandon for the creamery, and at last he went there continually. He fell in with some men from Winnipeg who lent him money, and I think they gambled in town-lots, for Tom took the little I had saved, and used to come home rambling about a fortune. Then he would stay away for days together, until they dismissed him from the creamery, and all summer he had never a dollar to give me. But I worked at the butter-packing and managed to feed him when he did come home, until—Miss Lorimer, I am sorry you must hear this—he used to beat me when I had no more money to give him.”
Aline looked at her with a pity that was mingled with scorn: “I have heard of such things, and I have seen them too,” she said. “But why did you let him? I think I should kill the man who struck me.”
Minnie sighed wearily. “You don’t understand, and I hope you never will. Ralph, I have tried to bear it, but the life is killing me, and I have grown horribly afraid235of him. Moran, a friend of the creamery manager, offered me a place at another station down the line, but I have no money to get there and I cannot go like this. Tom is coming back to-night, and I dare not tell him, so I wondered whether you would help me.”
“Of course he will,” said Aline, “and if your husband comes here making inquiries I hope I shall have an opportunity for answering him.”
I had the strongest disinclination to be mixed up in such an affair, but I could see no escape from it. There were even marks of bruises on the poor woman’s face, and when, promising assistance, I went out to see to the horses and think it over, Minnie Fletcher burst into hysterical sobbing as Aline placed an arm protectingly around her. She had retired before I returned, for I fancied that Aline could dispense with my presence and I found something to detain me.
“Ralph, you are a genius,” Aline said when I told her that I did not hurry back, “I have arranged to lend her enough to buy a few things, and to-morrow I’m going to drive her in to the store and the station. No, you need not come; I know the way. Oh, don’t begin to ask questions; just try to think a little instead.”
I allowed her to have her own way. Indeed, Aline generally insisted on this, while with many protestations of gratitude Minnie Fletcher departed the next morning, and I hoped that the affair was ended. In this I was disappointed, for, returning with Jasper the next day from an outlying farm, I found Aline awaiting me in a state of suppressed excitement. She was paler than usual, and moved nervously, and the Marlin rifle lay on the table with the hammer drawn back.
When Jasper volunteered to lead the horses in she dropped limply into a chair.
“I have spent a terrible afternoon, Ralph. In fact,236though I feel ashamed of myself, I have not got over it yet.”
I eased the spring of the rifle and inquired whether some wandering Blackfoot had frightened her.
“No,” Aline answered, “The Indians are in their own way gentlemen. It was an Englishman. Mr. Thomas Fletcher called to inquire for his wife, and—and—he didn’t call sober.”
Aline choked back something between a laugh and a sob before she continued: “He came in a wagon with another little dark man with a cunning face, and walked into the room before I could stop him. ‘I want my runaway wife, and I mean to find her. Who the deuce are you—another of them?’ he said.”
I found it hard work to keep back the words that seemed most suitable, and perhaps I was not altogether successful, while Aline’s forehead turned crimson and she clenched her hand viciously as she added:
“I told him that I was your sister, and he laughed as he said—he didn’t believe me. Then he swore horribly, and said—oh, I can’t tell you what he said, but he intended to ruin you, and would either shoot his wife or thrash her to death, while the man in the wagon sat still, smiling wickedly, and I grew horribly frightened.”
The rattle of harness outside increased, and turning I saw Jasper striding away from the wagon, which stood near the open doorway, while Aline drew in her breath as she continued: “Then Fletcher said he would make me tell where his wife was, and I determined that he should kill me first. He came toward me like a wild beast, for there were little red veins in his eyes, and I moved backward round the table, feeling perfectly awful, because he reeked of liquor. Then I saw the rifle and edged away until I could reach it, and he stopped and said more fearful things, until the237man jumped out of the wagon and dragged him away. I think Fletcher was afraid of the other man. So I just sat down and cried, and wondered whether I should have dared shoot him, until I found there wasn’t a cartridge at all in the rifle.”
After this Aline wept copiously again and while, feeling both savage and helpless, I patted her shoulder, calling her a brave girl, Jasper looked in.
“I won’t stop and worry Miss Lorimer now,” he said shortly. “I’m borrowing a saddle, and will see you to-morrow. Good evening.”
He kept his promise, for the next morning, when Aline was herself again, he rode up to the door and came in chuckling.
“I guess I have a confession to make,” he said, “Couldn’t help hearing what your sister said, though I kept banging the harness to let you know I was there, so I figured as to their probable trail and lit out after them. Came up with the pair toward nightfall by the big sloo, and invited Mr. Fletcher to an interview. Fletcher didn’t seem to see it. He said he wouldn’t get down, but mentioned several things—they’re not worth repeating—about his wife and you, with a word of your sister that settled me.
“‘I’m a friend of Miss Lorimer’s. Are you coming down now,’ says I.
“‘I’m not,’ says Thomas Fletcher; so I just yanked him right out on to the prairie, and started in with the new whip to skin him. Asked the other man if he’d any objections, but if he had he didn’t raise them. Then I hove all that was left of Fletcher right into the sloo, and rode home feeling considerably better.”
He laughed a big hearty laugh, and then started as Aline came out of an inner room.
“I want to thank you, Mr. Jasper,” she said. “There238are people with whom one cannot argue, and I think that thrashing will do him good. I hope that you did it thoroughly.”
Jasper swung down his broad hat, fidgeted, and said awkwardly, “I didn’t figure on telling you, but if ever that man comes round here again, or there’s any one else scares you, you won’t forget to let me know.”
Aline glanced straight into the eyes of the speaker, who actually blushed with pleasure as she said: “I will certainly promise, and I shouldn’t desire a better champion, but there is at present no necessity to send you out spreading devastation upon the prairie.”
Jasper looked idiotically pleased at this, and for a time we heard no more of Thomas Fletcher, who nevertheless had not forgotten the incident. As the former had anticipated, the demand for shipping cattle still increased, and when it was announced that several large steamers were awaiting the last load before the St. Lawrence was frozen fast, Jasper rode west to try to pick up a few more head, and informed me that he would either telegraph or visit Winnipeg to arrange for the sale before returning. News travels in its own way on the prairie, and we afterward decided that Fletcher, who had returned to his deserted home, must have heard of this. Jasper had been gone several days when a man in city attire rode up to Fairmead with two assistants driving a band of stock. He showed me a cattle-salesman’s card, and stated that he had agreed with Jasper to dispose of our beasts on commission, and as the latter was waiting in Winnipeg, he asked me to ride over to his homestead to obtain delivery. This I did, and afterward accompanied him to the railroad, where I saw the cattle put safely on board a stock train, and early the next morning I returned, feeling that I had done a good stroke of business.239
The same afternoon, while Aline prepared a meal, I sat writing a letter to Harry, telling him with much satisfaction how well our investment had resulted. Aline listened with a smile to my running comments, and then remarked dryly:
“I think you have forgotten your usual caution for once, Ralph. You should have gone with them, and seen the sale. I didn’t like that man, and once or twice I caught him looking at you in a way that struck me as suspicious. I suppose you are sure the firm he represented is good?”
“It’s as good as a bank,” I answered, and then grew almost vexed with her, for Aline had an irritating way of damping one’s enthusiasm. “Now try to say something pleasant, and I’ll buy you a pair of the best fur mittens in Winnipeg when we get the money.”
“Then I hope you will get it,” said Aline, “for I should like the gloves. Here is another cattleman going south.”
She placed more plates on the table, while, throwing down the pen, I looked out of the window. Here and there the dry grasses were buried in snow, and a glance at the aneroid suggested that we might have to accommodate the visitor all night, for the appearance of the weather was not promising. He came on at good pace, wrapped in a short fur coat, and I noticed that he did not ride altogether like the prairie-born. When he dismounted I led his horse into the stable before I ushered him into the room. The meal was almost ready, and we expected him to join us as a matter of course. He was a shrewd-looking young man with a pleasant face, and bowed gracefully to Aline as he said in a straightforward way:
“I thank you for your kindness, madam, and must introduce myself—James Heysham, of Ross & Grant, high-class cattle-salesmen. Best market prices, immediate settlements guaranteed, reasonable commission, and all the rest240of it. Glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Lorimer; here’s our card. I rode over from the railroad on the way to Jasper’s, to see if I could make a deal with you. Now’s the time to realize on your stock, and Ross & Grant the best firm to entrust them to. Don’t want to accept your hospitality under false pretenses, and there are still a few prejudiced Englishmen who look down on the drummer. Once waited on a man called Carrington—and he wasn’t even civil.”
“Sit down,” I said, laughing. “This is my sister, and at least we can offer you a meal, but you are too late to sell our stock. I have just returned from shipping Jasper’s as well as my own under charge of a new partner of Gardner’s.”
Heysham looked puzzled. “It’s a reliable firm—almost as good as our own,” he said. “You must not smile, Miss Lorimer; when one earns a living by that talk it’s hard to get out of it. But they’re conservative, and never send drummers around. Besides, there’s only Gardner and his brother—they haven’t a partner. Now I wonder whether”—and the last words were unintelligible.
An uneasy feeling commenced to grow on me, and our guest looked thoughtful.
“You suspect something, Mr. Heysham,” said Aline, “and you ought to tell us what it is. I want to know exactly what you meant when you added ‘Confidence men.’”
Then I started, and Heysham bowed as he answered: “You are evidently new to the wicked ways of this country, Miss Lorimer. I meant that some unprincipled person has, I fear, unfortunately taken your brother in. I have suspicions. Was he a little dark man, or perhaps it was another, rather stout and red-faced? Still I’m puzzled as to how they acquired the local knowledge and learned enough about your business to fool you.”241
“No,” I answered with a gleam of hope, “he was neither;” but Aline broke in:
“The man you mention drove here in a wagon some weeks earlier, and I know how he got the local knowledge—the other, with the red face, was Thomas Fletcher. He lived on the prairie, Mr. Heysham, and there must have been three in the plot.”
I rose from the table, flinging back my chair, but Heysham nodded gravely.
“Exactly; there are three of them. Your sister has made it all clear,” he said. “I know the party—they’ve been engineering various shady deals in estate and produce, and now, when Winnipeg is getting uncomfortably warm, this is evidently a last coup before they light out across the boundary. The dark man was a clerk in the stock trade—turned out for embezzlement—once, you see. Still, they can’t sell until to-morrow, and we might get the night train. No chance of trade hereabout, you say; then, for the credit of our market, if you’ll lend me a fresh horse, I’m going right back to Winnipeg with you. Sit down, and finish your dinner; you’ll want it before you’re through.”
I looked at Aline, who was equal to the occasion. “You must certainly go,” she said. “Even if there is a blizzard, I shall be safe enough.”
So presently she buttoned the skin coat about me, slipped a flask of spirits into the pocket; and just before we started kissed me, saying, “Take care of yourself, and do your utmost. There are all poor Jasper’s cattle besides our own. Mr. Heysham, I thank you, and whenever you pass this way remember there’s a hearty welcome for you at Fairmead.”
“I am repaid already, madam,” said Heysham as we rode away.
242CHAPTER XXIIA RACE WITH TIME
A dreary ride lay before us, for already the afternoon drew toward its close, and the light drifts were eddying under a bitter wind. The pale sun was still in the heavens, but a gray dimness crept up from the grass-land’s verge toward it, against which the patches of snow gleamed lividly. However, I thought little about the cold, for with careless stupidity I had allowed a swindler to rob my partner, and a succession of blizzards would not have stopped me then. Heysham, though uninterested, seemed equally determined, and rode well, so the long miles of grass rolled behind us. Now a copse of birches flitted past, now a clump of willows, or the tall reeds of a sloo went down with a great crackling before us, then there were more swelling levels, for our course was straight as the crow flies from horizon to horizon, and we turned aside for no obstacle.
It was dusk when with lowered heads we charged through the scattered birches of a ravine bluff, and far down in the hollow beneath I caught the dull gleam of snow-sprinkled ice.
“It’s a mean-looking gully,” gasped Heysham. “I guess that creek’s not frozen hard, and it’s pretty deep. Say, hadn’t we better lead our horses?” and I flung an answer over my shoulder:
“That will just make the difference between catching and missing the train. I’m going down in the saddle.”
“Then of course I’m going too,” said Heysham breathlessly.243“Your neck is worth as much as mine is anyway.”
For the next few moments I saw nothing at all but the shadowy lines of birch stems that went reeling past. A branch struck Heysham’s horse, and swerving, it jammed his leg against a tree; then there was a crash as my own beast, blundering, charged through a thicket where the brittle stems snapped like pistol-shots, but the salesman was close behind me, and with a shout of “No bridge for miles. I’ll show you the way over,” I drove my horse at the creek.
The quaggy banks were frozen hard now. They were also rough and ploughed up by the feet of cattle, which had come there to drink before the frost, and the leap looked horribly dangerous, for I dare not trust the ice; but the beast got safely off and came down with a great crackling amid thinly frozen mud and reeds. There was a splash and a flounder behind me, and then as we staggered forth Heysham came up abreast, with the water dripping from his horse, and I found breath to exclaim:
“Well done! I never should have thought a city man could bring a horse down there.”
“Thanks!” said Heysham, with more than a suspicion of dryness. “In this enlightened country one must earn one’s bread as one can, but I wasn’t brought up to the drummer’s calling. Used to ride with—but that has nothing to do with you, and I’m hoping you’ll strike the railroad on the shortest possible line. It wouldn’t be nice to spend to-night on the prairie.”
There could be no doubt on this point, for when we reached the levels darkness had closed down and the air was thick with uplifted snow which smarted our eyes and made breathing difficult, while, for the first time, I commenced to have misgivings. Heysham had understated the case, for unless we struck the railroad we might very well freeze to death on the prairie. I explained this to him, and gave244him directions how he could find a farm by following the creek; but he laughed.
“It’s an exciting run,” he said, “and even life in Winnipeg grows monotonous. Lead on, I’m anxious to be in at the finish.”
The snow came down in earnest before we had made two more leagues, and, steering partly by the wind and partly by instinct of direction, I held on half-choked and blinded, more and more slowly, until, when at last the case looked hopeless, Heysham shouted, for a telegraph post loomed up.
“You have reached the railroad, anyway,” he said. “The only question is—how far from the station are we?”
We drew rein for a few moments beside the graded track, and shook the snow from our wrappings as we debated the simple question whose issues were momentous. The horses were worn out, we were nearly frozen, and the white flakes whirled more and more thickly about us.
“We can only go and see, and the track at least will guide us,” I said at last. “I don’t think the station can be many miles away.”
The rest of the journey left but a blurred memory of an almost sightless struggle through a filmy haze, in which we occasionally lost each other and touch with the guiding poles, until at last, caked thick with wind-packed snow, we caught sight of a pale glimmer, and fell solidly, as it were, out of the saddle in the shelter of the station. Here, however, a crushing disappointment awaited us.
“Stopping train passed two hours ago,” said the station agent. “Won’t be another until the Montreal express comes through. Heard the stock cars passed Brandon by daylight—they’ll be in Winnipeg now.”
“You have one move left,” said Heysham. “Hire a special! Comes high, of course, but it’s cheaper than losing245your cattle. They can’t sell before to-morrow; and you won’t be hard on a plundered man, agent? That locomotive ought to take us through.”
“Can’t cut schedule prices,” was the answer, after I had explained. “I haven’t a single car, but I was saving Number Forty to haul in wheat, and if she doesn’t strike a snow-block, and old Robertson’s in the humor, she’ll land you in Winnipeg before daylight to-morrow. It’s cutting things fine, however.”
We put our horses in the hotel stable, managed as a special favor to obtain some food in a basket, and then climbed into the locomotive cab, where the Ontario mechanic stood rubbing his hands with waste while a grimy subordinate flung fuel into the roaring furnace.
“She’s the best machine for a hard run on this road,” he said, as he clutched the lever with professional pride. “All you have to do is to sit tight, and I’ll bring you in on time.”
Then, panting heavily, Number Forty rolled out from the station on to the lonely waste, and when, as we jolted over the switches, the lights died out behind, Robertson became intent as he shoved the lever home. For a moment the big drivers whirred on the snow-greased line, then the wheel-treads bit the metals, and the plates commenced to tremble beneath our feet. Staring out through a quivering glass I could see a white haze rising and falling ahead as the wild gusts came down, driving an icy coldness through the vibrating cab, while, when these passed, there was only the glare of the huge head-lamp flickering like a comet down the straight-ruled track.
Robertson nodded to his fireman, for Heysham had told him the story, and presently the vibration grew yet sharper. The gaunt telegraph-posts no longer swept past in endless files, but reeled toward us under the fan-shaped blaze huddled all together in a fantastic dance, while willow bluffs246leaped up out of the whiteness and vanished again as by magic into the dim prairie. The snow from above had ceased temporarily. Then a screaming blast struck the engine, wrapping it about in a dense white cloud that glittered before the lamp, the glasses rattled, and an impalpable powder, that seemed to burn the skin, drove in through every opening. Robertson glanced at his pressure-gauge.
“She’s doing her best,” he said, “and she’ll need to. I guess we’ll find drifts in the hollows, and the snow will come down again presently. It’s only coming up now.”
I ought to have known better, but, although a British custom is more honored in the breach than the observance in Western Canada, I had met men who could pocket their pride, and, after fumbling in my wallet, I held out a slip of paper, saying, “She’s doing splendidly. I wish you would buy Mrs. Robertson something with this.”
“No, sir!” was the prompt answer. “You can keep your bill. If that fraud gets in ahead of you you’ll probably want it. I get good pay, and I earn it, and you’re not big enough to give presents to me.”
A new arrival might have been astonished. I only felt that I had deserved the rebuke, and was thankful that Aline had slipped the flask and some of Martin Lorimer’s cigars into my pocket, while Robertson smiled broadly as in defiance of his orders he emptied the silver cup. It was a gift from my cousin Alice.
“I apologize. Should have remembered it,” I said bluntly.
Then we were racing through stiller air again, with the driving cloud behind; for each of the curious rushes of wind that precedes a prairie storm keeps to a definite path of its own. Several times, with a roar of wheels flung back to us, we swept through a sleeping town, where thin frame houses went rocking past until the tall elevators shut them247in, and again there was only a dim stretch of prairie that rolled up faster and faster under the front trailing-wheels.
At last, when the lights of Brandon glimmered ahead, Heysham fell over the fireman as the locomotive jumped to the checking of the brake, and a colored flicker blinked beside the track. The glare of another head-lamp beat upon us as we rolled through the station, while amid the clash of shocking wheat-cars that swept past I caught the warning:
“Look out for the snow-block east of Willow Lake! Freight-train on the single track; wires not working well!”
“I guess we’ll take our chances,” said Robertson; and Number Forty panted louder, hurling red sparks aloft as he rushed her at an up-grade. Still, his brows contracted when, some time later, he beckoned me, and I saw a wide lake draw near with silky drifts racing across its black ice. They also flowed across the track ahead, while beyond it the loom of what might be a flag station was faintly visible against a driving bank of cloud.
“Snow’s coming off the ice,” he said. “Hold fast! She may jump a little when I ram her through.”
The pace grew even faster. We were racing down an incline, and now, ice, station, and prairie alike were blotted out by a blinding whiteness; while presently I was flung backward off my feet, and would have fallen but that I clutched a guard-rail. The whole cab rattled, the great locomotive lurched, and a white smother hurtled under the lamp glare, until once more the motion grew even, and we could feel the well-braced frame of iron and steel leap forward beneath us. Engineer Robertson swayed easily to the oscillation as, with one side of his intent face toward me, he clutched the throttle lever, until he called hoarsely as his fingers moved along it. Then, even while the steam roared in blown-down wreaths from the lifting valve, the lever was straight at wide-open again, and I caught my248breath as I made out another yellow halo with something that moved behind it in the snow ahead.
“It’s the freight pulling out of the siding. I can’t hold Number Forty up before she’s over the switches. I guess we’ve got to race for it,” he said.
The fireman did something, and, with a shower of half-burned cinders from her funnel and a mad blast of the whistle, Number Forty pounded on. Heysham’s face was paler than before, and the disc of yellow radiance grew nearer and brighter. A faint flash appeared below it, a deeper whistle reached us brokenly, and I remembered two hoarse voices.
“They’re opening the switches! That’s come on,” one of them said. “Trying to check the freighter! There’ll be an almighty smash if they don’t!”
The other was apparently Heysham’s: “And two rascally confidence men will be skipping for the border with the proceeds of what should have been Ross & Grant’s cattle.”
I said nothing. It did not seem that talking would do any good, and the engineer might not have welcomed my advice. The great light was very close. I could see the cars behind it and hear the grind of brakes, while a man was bent double over a lever where the blaze of our head-lamp ran along the ground. The engine rocked beneath us; there was a heavy lurch as the fore-wheels struck the points; then Robertson laughed exultantly and wiped his greasy face. In front lay only the open prairie and flying snow, while the black shape of the freight-train grew indistinct behind.
“It was a pretty close call. Snow blurred the lights, and I guess the gale has broken a wire,” he said. “Them folks never expected us, but they were smart with the switches. I’ll say that for them.”249
“Good man!” said Heysham. “She’s a grand machine. Next to riding home first in a steeplechase I’d like to have the running of a lightning express. Used to do the former once, but now Fate she says to me, ‘You stop right there in Winnipeg, and sell other men’s cattle for the best price you can.’ Lorimer, I think Number Forty has saved that stock for you.”
Then, shivering as the blasts struck the cab, we crouched, alternately frozen and roasted, in the most sheltered corner we could find, while, feeling the pulse of the great quivering machine with a grimy hand, Robertson hurled his engine along past Carberry and the slumbering Portage, until at last, just before the dawn, sheeted white from head-lamp to tank-rail and dripping below, she came pounding into Winnipeg.
“We’ll let that slide. I don’t like a fuss,” said Robertson, when I thanked him. “Glad to do our best for you, Forty and me; and I guess the Company haven’t another machine short of the inter-ocean racers that would have brought you in the time.”
Then we interviewed the freight-traffic manager.
“That stock consignment came in hours ago,” he informed us. “We haven’t unloaded them yet. Anyway, you’ll have to hurry and see the police, for we’re bound to deliver against shipping bill. Don’t know how you would square things after that; and it’s not my business. Still, I’ll have those cars side-tracked where they can’t be got at readily.”
Next we sought the police, and, after driving half across the city, obtained audience with a magistrate, the result of which was that a detective accompanied us to the station, and then round the hotels, inquiring for the conspirators under several different names. None of them, however, appeared on any hotel register, until we called at a certain250well-known hostelry, where our companion was recognized by the clerk.
“Yes, I guess we’ve got the men you want,” he said, with unusual civility for a Western hotel clerk. “Just stood some big stock-buyers a high-class breakfast, and you’ll find them upstairs. Say, if you want assistance send right down for me.”
“We’ll probably fix them without you,” was the smiling answer. “Only two doors to the place, haven’t you? I’ll leave this man here with you, sending two more to the other one. Walk straight in, Mr. Lorimer, and see the end of the play.”
We entered the bustling coffee-room, where, at the detective’s suggestion, I ordered refreshment, and he placed us at a table behind two pillars. Heysham ate and chatted in high spirits; but, though hungry enough, I could scarcely eat at all, and sat still in irresolute impatience for what seemed an interminable time. I could not get Minnie’s worn face out of my memory; and, though her husband’s incarceration would probably be a boon to her, I knew she would not think so. Besides, this deliberate trapping of a man I had met on terms of friendship, even after what had happened, was repugnant; and the cattle were safe. There was, however, nothing to do but wait; for, alert and watchful, the representative of the law—who, nevertheless, made an excellent breakfast—kept his eyes fixed on the door, until I would have risen, but that he restrained me, as, followed by several others, Fletcher and a little dark man, besides the one who had cajoled the stock from me, came in.
“Stock-buyers!” whispered the detective, thrusting me further back. “Go slow. In the interests of justice, I want to see just what they’re going to do.”
The newcomers seated themselves not far from the other251side of the pillar, and I waited feverishly, catching snatches of somewhat vivid general chatter, until one of the party said more loudly: “Now let us come down to business. I’ve seen the beasts—had to crawl over the cars to do it—and they’re mostly trash, though there are some that would suit me, marked hoop L. & J. Say, come down two dollars a head all around, and I’ll give you a demand draft on the bank below for the lot.”
What followed I did not hear, but by-and-by a voice broke through the confused murmuring: “It’s a deal!” An individual scribbling in his pocket-book moved toward a writing table. Then the detective stepped forward, beckoning to me.
“Sorry to spoil trade, but I’ve saved your check, gentlemen,” he said. “That stock’s stolen. Thomas Gorst and other names, Will Stephens, and Thomas Fletcher, would you like to glance at this warrant? No! well, it’s no use looking ugly, there are men at either door waiting for you. This is a new trick, Stephens, and you haven’t played it neatly.”
“Euchred!” gasped the little man, while the other scowled at me.
“Confusion to you! In another hour I’d have been rustling for the Great Republic. Still, I guess the game’s up. Don’t be a mule, Fletcher; I’m going quietly.”
He held out his hands with a resigned air, but when, amid exclamations of wonder, another officer appeared mysteriously from somewhere to slip on the handcuffs, Fletcher hurled a decanter into his face and sprang wildly for the door. He passed within a yard of where I stood. I could have stopped him readily with an outstretched foot or hand, but I did neither, and there was an uproar as he plunged down the stairway with an officer close behind him. The detective saw his other prisoners handcuffed before he followed,252and though he said nothing he gazed at me reproachfully. When we stood at the head of the stairs he chuckled as he pointed below.
“Your friend hasn’t got very far,” he said dryly.
It was true enough, for in the hall a stalwart constable sat on the chest of a fallen man who apparently strove to bite him, and I saw that the latter was Thomas Fletcher. I had clearly been guilty of a dereliction of the honest citizen’s duty, but for all that I did not like the manner in which he said, “Your friend.”
We returned to the station, and later in the day I entertained Robertson and Heysham with the best luncheon I could procure, when for once we drank success to Number Forty in choice vintages.
“I can’t sufficiently thank you, Heysham,” I said when we shook hands. “Now, advise me about those cattle; and is there anything I can do for you?”
“Enjoyed the fun,” was the answer, “and you gave me a free passage to Winnipeg. I didn’t do it for that reason, but if you like to leave the disposal of those beasts to Ross & Grant, highest-class salesmen, promptest settlements, etc., I shall be pleased to trade with you. Sorry to intrude business, but after all I’m a drummer, and one must earn one’s bread and butter—see?”
I had much pleasure in agreeing, and Ross & Grant sold those beasts to my complete satisfaction and Jasper’s as well, while that was but the beginning of a profitable connection with them, and an acquaintance with Heysham, who was from the first a friend of Aline’s and is now sole partner in the firm. Still, though I returned to Fairmead with the proceeds, satisfied, it transpired that Thomas Fletcher was not yet past doing me a further injury.