The fires of sunset were fading low down on the verge of the prairie when I spoke for the last time with Beatrice Haldane, as it happened, beside the splendid wheat. It was changing from green to ochre, and there was a play of varied light athwart the rigid blades, which in its own way emphasized the symmetry of the tall figure in pale-tinted draperies. Miss Haldane was stately of presence, but it was symbolic of the difference between us that while we of the prairie ever turned our eyes instinctively towards the West, she stood looking back towards civilization and the darkening East, with a cold green brilliancy burning behind her head. It matched the face projected against it, which was that of a statue, perfect in modeling, as I still think, if almost as colorless and serene. Beatrice Haldane was very beautiful, and every curve and fold of the simple dress was immaculate and harmonious because it seemed a part of her.
My threadbare jean clung shapelessly about me, there was thick dust on my old leggings and a rent in my broad hat, which trifles were, by comparison, not without significance. Beatrice Haldane was clearly born to take a leading place, with the eyes of many upon her, where life pulsed fastest in the older world. I was a plain rancher, conscious, in spite of theories concerning its dignity, of the brand of rude labor and the stain of the soil; but at least my eyes were opened so that I had seen the utter impossibility of a once cherished dream.
"The prairie is very beautiful to-night, and surely this grain promises a splendid yield," she said. "I am glad that it is so, for it will leave a pleasant memory. I shall probably never stand beside the wheat again."
This, I knew, was true. Beatrice Haldane wouldleave for Montreal and Paris in a day or two, and, paying Bonaventure a farewell visit, she had ridden over with her father, who had business with me. Strange to say, I could now contemplate her approaching marriage with equanimity.
"There are many drawbacks, but it is a good country," I answered thoughtfully.
Beatrice Haldane looked at me, and again I felt that she could still draw my soul to the surface for inspection if she desired to. I also fancied she knew her power, and wished to exercise it, but not from pride in its possession.
"And yet you can now hardly hope for more than a laborious life and moderate prosperity. The prairie is often dreary, and the toil almost brutalizing. Are you still content?"
The sympathy in the voice robbed the words of any sting, and I answered cheerfully: "It is all that you say; but there are compensations, and I think no effort is thrown away. I can only repeat the old argument. One can feel that he is playing a useful part in a comprehensive scheme even in the muddiest tramp down a half-thawn furrow, and that every ear of wheat called up or added head of cattle is needed by the world. Perhaps the chief care of three-fourths of humanity concerns their daily bread. Of course, our principal motive is the desire to attain our own, and you may not understand that there is a satisfaction in the mere discovering of how much one can do without, and, possibly as a result of this, that one's physical nature rises equal to the strain."
"And what do you gain—the right to work still harder?" she asked. "I can grasp the half-formed ideal in your mind, and it is old, for thousands of years before Thoreau men enlarged on it. Still, it has always seemed to me that the realization is only possible to the very few, and to the rest the result mostly destructive to the intellect."
I laughed a little. "And I am very much of the rank and file; but at least I have no hope of emulating eitherthe medieval devotees or the modern Hindoo visionaries. We practice self-denial from the prosaic lack of money, or to save a little to sink in a longer furrow, and endure fatigue more often to pay our debts than to acquire a bank balance. Yet the result is not affected. The world is better fed."
"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "It seems that whatever your motives may be these things possess virtue in themselves—but the virtues do not necessarily react upon those who practice them."
"That is true," I answered. "Perhaps it is the motives that count."
Beatrice Haldane looked away towards the dying fires. "There was a time when you would not have been content."
The wondrous green transparency had almost gone, the dew touched the wheat, and we stood alone in the emptiness, under the hush that crept up with the dimness from the east, and through which one could almost hear the thirsty grasses drink. I knew now that I had never loved Beatrice Haldane as a man usually loves a woman, but had offered an empty homage to an unreality. Still, the semblance had once been real enough to me, and I could not wholly hold my peace and let her go. Furthermore, both she and her sister possessed the gift of forcing one's inmost thoughts, and there was a power in the quiet voice stronger than my will.
"No. I once had my ambitions and an ideal," I said. "At first their realization seemed possible, but I had my lesson. Even when I knew the ideal was unattainable, the knowledge did not decrease its influence, and now, while smiling at past presumption, I can at least cherish the memory. I think you must have known part of this."
Beatrice Haldane had by knowledge attained to a perfection of simplicity, and, while my own was either the result of ignorance or born in me, we met upon it as man and woman—the latter too queenly to stoop to any small assumption of diffidence.
"I guessed it long ago, and there was a time when I was pleased," she said. "However, it was doubtlesswell for you that, when contact with the world taught me what we both were, I knew it was impossible. When we met again on the prairie, you could not see that I was not the girl you knew in England. She had, in the meantime, bought enlightenment dearly; though whether it or her earlier fancies were nearer the hidden truth she does not know."
"In one respect you can never change to me," I said. "The sunny-faced girl in England will always live in my memory."
Beatrice Haldane smiled, though the fast fading light showed the weariness in her eyes. "Until you find the substance better than the shadow; and she must always have been unreal. Still, we are not proof against such assurances, and I am even now partly pleased to hear you say so. Do you know that you have shamed me, Harry Ormesby?"
"That would be impossible," I said; and my companion smiled.
"Hold fast by your blunt directness if you are wise," she said. "I was blinded by the critical faculty, and you rebuked me by clinging to your visionary ideal, while I—misjudged you. I do not mind admitting now that it hurt me, the more so when I found that Lucille, being—and there is truth in the phrase—unspotted by the world, believed in you implicitly. It was because of this I allowed you to speak as you have done. I felt that I must ask your forgiveness, because we shall probably never meet again."
Whether Beatrice Haldane was correct in her own estimate I do not know; but she was the most queenly woman I had ever met, and I lifted the rent hat as I said: "Circumstances betrayed me, and you could do no wrong. Even if that had been possible, how far would one suspicion count against all that the girl in England has done for me? Now it only remains for us to part good friends—and with full sincerity I wish you every happiness."
"Thank you," said Beatrice quietly; and without another word we walked back towards the house together through the velvet dusk. I noticed that Lucille glanced at us sharply as we entered.
"You will not forget our appointment in Winnipeg," said Haldane, as they drove away; and I stood still long after the vehicle had melted into the prairie. What I thought I do not remember; but it was with a dreamy calmness that, now the worst had passed, I returned to Crane Valley.
Reluctance mingled with my anticipation when I proceeded to Winnipeg at the appointed time. The harvest was almost ready, and a brief holiday possibly justifiable in anticipation of that time of effort; but the journey was long and expensive, while, after our severe economies, I had fallen into the habit of slow consideration each time I spent a dollar. Steel laughed when I said so, and pointed to the grain. "It's easier to get used to prosperity than the other thing," he said. "There is plenty money yonder to start you again. If necessary you can remember you have earned a good time."
The sight of the long waves of deepening ochre that rolled before the warm breeze was very reassuring, though belief came slowly, and for days I had feared some fresh disaster. Their rhythmical rustle, swelled by the murmur of the wheat heads and the patter of the oats, made sweet music, for their undertone was hope, while the flash and flicker of the bending blades presaged the glitter of hard-won gold—gold that would set me a free man again. Then I was ashamed, and my voice a trifle husky, as I said: "I am certainly going to Winnipeg, Steel. If it had not been for the others the harvest would have left me in the grip of Lane, and now that the time has come I mean to stand by them."
I boarded the cars the more contentedly that there was a note in my pocket from Lucille Haldane. "Father tells me the time is ripe for you and your friends to strike at last," it ran. "I want to ask you to assist him in every way you can; and I wait anxiously to hear of your success."
I did not understand the whole plan of campaign, but gathered that Haldane, with the support of our prairiecommittee, would make a "bear" attack on the company—which, while Lane held stock in it, had largely financed him—and I looked forward with keen interest to the struggle. We others had done our best with plow and bridle, not to mention birch staff and fork; but we had hitherto acted chiefly on the defensive, and now an attack was to be pushed home with the aid of money and a superior intellect.
Haldane was in excellent spirits when, accompanied by Boone, he greeted me in Winnipeg station. "I feel less rusty already, and you look several years younger than you did a few months ago," he said. "But we have breakfast ready, and can talk comfortably over it."
The meal was a luxurious one, and Haldane's explanations interesting. "Mr. Boone has taken a great deal of trouble to inquire into Lane's affairs, with the assistance of a man Dixon recommended. Considering the difficulties, I hardly think I should have succeeded better myself," he said.
Boone said this was an unmerited compliment; and Haldane laughed. "Well, the result, as anticipated, is this. Lane has most of his money locked up in mortgages which he does not wish to foreclose on immediately, while we conclude that the rest is represented by shares in the Territories Investment Company, which concern proposes to increase its capital, and, as somebody has been trying to sell that stock quietly in small lots, one may decide that he is short of money. We purpose to scare off buyers and depreciate his shares by selling them in handfuls as publicly as possible; or, in other words, to hammer the company."
"There are two points I am not clear about," I said. "We have not the stock to sell; and wouldn't it be a trifle hard on innocent shareholders?"
"We are finding out your capacities by degrees," said Haldane, with a quizzical glance at me. "In the first place, we take the risk of being able to procure the stock when frightened holders rush on the market. If they don't—well, there will be a difficulty. In the second place, there are no innocent holders, or only a very few.The corporation is a semi-private concern—combination of second-rate sharpers of your friend's own kidney; and the few outsiders are professional speculators who take such risks as they come—they are only now thinking of an appeal to the general public. Here is the latest balance sheet, and I presume you are not anxious to see a continuance of that dividend wrung out of your friends on the prairie."
My anger flamed up once more as I glanced at the figures. I had seen how that profit was earned—not by the company's agents, but by careworn men and suffering women, who toiled under a steadily increasing burden, which was crushing the life out of them. I had also received a laconic message from a combination of such as these: "Have paid in —— dollars to the B. O. M. We'll sell our boots to back you if Haldane's standing in. Do the best you can."
Then I brought my fist down on the table as I said: "I'd walk out a beggar to-morrow before that should happen. If this concern lives only by such plunder, for heaven's sake let us demolish it. I can't eat another morsel. Isn't it time to begin?"
Haldane smiled, and touched a bell. "My principal broker should be waiting."
A little, spectacled man, with a shrill voice and insignificant appearance, was ushered in, and, as I inspected him, Haldane's choice reminded me of the Hebrew shepherd's sling. He appeared a very feeble weapon to use against the giant who had oppressed us so grievously. "Territories have been offering at several dollars' reduction," he said. "Don't know why, unless it's the railroad uncertainty. You couldn't get hold of one under full premium until lately."
The speaker, in spite of his declared ignorance, answered Haldane's smile; and the latter said: "You can begin at a further five dollars down. Come round in the afternoon and tell us how you are progressing. Isn't there a race meeting somewhere about this place to-day?"
The broker said there was; and I was astonished whenHaldane suggested that we might as well attend it, for this part of the conflict was evidently to be fought on wholly novel lines. We drove to the meeting, and after the monotony of Crane Valley the sight of the light-hearted crowd, the hum of voices and laughter, the gay dresses, and, above all, the horses, was exhilarating. Nevertheless, it was some time before the scene compelled my whole attention, for the issues of the business which had brought me to Winnipeg appeared far too serious to justify such trifling. By degrees, however, I yielded to the influence of the stirring spectacle, and was at length amazed to find myself shouting wildly with the rest when a handsome chestnut broke out from the ruck of galloping horses a furlong from the post. Then, indeed, for a few seconds I was oblivious of everything but the silk-clad figure and the beautiful animal rushing past the dim sea of faces in the blaze of sunshine behind, while the roar of hoofs and the human clamor set me quivering. It was all so different from anything I had heard or seen on the silent prairie. Boone returned presently, and I stared at the silver coins he placed in my palm.
"You don't look satisfied, Ormesby, with the result of your few dollars. Are you sorry I did not lay a decent stake, or have you been infected by Lane?" he said; and I answered him dryly: "I'm sorry that, without telling me, you staked anything at all. It is so long since I had any money to risk on such amusements—and it does not seem fair to the anxious men waiting on the prairie."
Haldane laughed. "It is generally wise to make the most of a pleasant interlude, because the average man does not get too many of them. If this strikes you as trifling, Ormesby, you will find grim enough amusement before we are through."
It was afternoon when we returned to the city, and we recommenced the campaign by a sumptuous lunch, during which the broker came in. "I've been offering Territories until I'm hoarse," he said. "There was some surprise and talking, but nobody wanted to buy; and,while it's an honor to serve you, I don't see much of a commission in this."
"You will, if I know my opponents," said Haldane significantly. "Take off two more dollars, and, if there are any buyers, don't let them think you're not in earnest. You can put another of your friends on."
The broker departed and left me wondering. It struck me that to reduce the value by open quotations should have been enough, without saddling ourselves with contracts when we did not hold the stock; but it seemed that cautious slowness was not Haldane's way. He next insisted on playing billiards with me, and he played as well as I did badly, for my fingers had grown stiff from the grip of the plow-stilts and bridle, and we had small opportunity for such amusements on the prairie. Nothing of importance happened during the remainder of the day, but I have a clear recollection of how the throb of life from the busy city reacted on me as we sat together on a balcony outside the smoking-room after dinner. It was a hot night, and the streets were filled with citizens seeking coolness in the open air. The place seemed alive with moving figures that came and went endlessly under the glare of the great arc lights, while the stir and brilliancy appeared unreal to me. The air throbbed with voices, the clank of great freight trains in the station, and the hum of trolley cars; while only one narrow strip of sky appeared between the rows of stores, and that strip was barred by a maze of interlacing wires. I felt as though I had awakened from a century's sleep on the prairie.
"Somewhat different from Crane Valley," said Haldane, pointing with his cigar towards the crowded wires. "I wonder how many of those are charged with our business—it is tolerably certain that some of them are. We have cheerfully thrown down the glove, and now the forces of fire and air and water are all pressed into the service of spreading our challenge across the continent. There's a mammoth printing machine in yonder building reeling it off by the thousands of copies every hour in its commercial reports, and those papers will be rushedeast and west to warn holders in Quebec or Vancouver to-night. Also, by this time, Lane, wherever he is, will be spending money like water to keep the wires humming. Feel uneasy about the explosion now that you have helped to fire the train?"
"I feel curious both as to why you should take so much trouble to help us, sir, and as to the enemy's first move," I said.
"To keep myself from rusting, for one thing, and because Lane is one man too many down our way," was the careless answer. "If that does not appear a sufficient motive I may perhaps mention another when we have won. As to the other affair, Lane will, so long as his means hold out, buy—or urge his friends to—while we sell. Just how far can you and the men behind you go?"
I named a sum, which Haldane noted. "With what Boone and I have decided to put up it will be enough if all goes well. If not—but we will not trouble about that. This contract strikes me as a trifle too big for Lane," he said.
I retired early, but scarcely slept all night. I felt that the struggle would commence in earnest on the morrow, and Haldane's words had warned me that our nerve and treasury might be taxed to the utmost before we made good the challenge we had so lightly, it seemed to me, sent broadcast across the Dominion.
I rose early next morning, and a stroll through the awakening city, which was cool and fresh as yet, braced me for the stress of the day. Haldane looked thoughtful at breakfast; Boone was silent and suspiciously stolid, for he betrayed himself by the very slowness with which he folded back the newspaper brought him to expose the commercial reports. He handed it to Haldane, who nodded, saying nothing. It was a relief to me, at least, when the meal was over, but afterwards the morning passed very heavily, for I spent most of it haunting a dark telephone box, where Haldane received and dispatched cabalistic messages. I did not approve of conflict of this description, in which the uninitiated could neither follow the points lost or won nor see the enemy, and I should have preferred the hay-fork and a background of sunlit prairie.
Noon seemed a very long time coming, and the report of the broker who arrived with it far from reassuring. "We have sold a fair block of stock, and I brought you the contracts to sign," he said. "Settlement and all conditions as usual. Each time that we offered a round lot Graham's salesman and another man took them up."
"Lane is taking hold. He has stirred up his allies," said Haldane. "I'll put my name to these papers, and you can call down another few dollars when you start again. I suppose there is no other person selling?"
"No," said the broker. "There were a good many other men curious about our game, and I fancy one or two of them had instructions; but they did nothing. We'll work up a sensation during the afternoon."
It would have greatly pleased me to hear of other persons parting with their shares; but Haldane stilllooked confident, and Boone appeared to place implicit faith in his generalship. I, however, grew more and more anxious as the afternoon dragged by, for my sense of responsibility to the men behind me increased when each tinkle of the telephone bell was followed by a message reporting further sales. Somebody was steadily taking up the stock we offered, and when, for the fourth time, Haldane had answered my question, "Any sign of weakness yet?" in the negative, I could stay indoors no longer, and found it a relief to stride briskly through the busy streets towards a grain buyer's offices.
My own personal risk was heavy enough, but I knew also what it had cost my prairie neighbors to raise the sum they had credited me with, and I felt that, if beaten, I dare not return and face them with the news that, losing all in an unsuccessful gamble, we had left them doubly helpless at the mercy of a triumphant enemy. The interview with the grain merchant was, however, in a measure comforting. He admitted that prices were improving, stated approximate figures which almost surprised me, and volunteered the information that when my crop should be gathered he would be glad to make me an offer. Although prospects were good in Western Canada, cereals were scarce everywhere else; and I returned so involved in mental calculations that I walked into several citizens, one of whom swore fluently. He wore toothpick-pointed shoes, and in my abstraction I had, it seemed, trodden cruelly on his toes.
Boone came up while I attempted to apologize, and tapped me on the shoulder. "What do you think of this amusement, Ormesby? It seems to have had the effect of dazing you," he said. "You were walking right past the hotel as though your eyes were shut."
"To be candid, I think very little of it," I said. "Still, I was puzzling over a slightly complicated sum to ascertain how much—counting every remaining beast, salable implement, and load of grain—would, when I have paid off Lane, remain my own."
"Planning your campaign for next year?" asked Boone, with a trace of dryness.
"No," I answered. "It will not be a great deal, but I'm open to stake the last cent on beating Lane."
"Good man!" said Boone. "We are going to beat him; and, to show that I am prepared to back my convictions, I may say that I have already hypothecated every pennyworth of my English property."
Haldane was waiting for us when we came in. "Our men have had a busy afternoon. All the shares they offered were bought up, and there is no sign of any weakness yet," he said.
We formed a somewhat silent company during the earlier portion of the evening. Haldane sat busy, pencil in hand, and finally passed a page of his notebook across to us. "I don't quite know who is backing Lane, but his purse is a tolerably long one," he said. "You see, we must produce shares, or the difference between their value at that time and the price we sold at, to this extent on settling day, Ormesby."
"Of which nobody would apparently sell us one," I answered ruefully.
Haldane nodded. "You mean, of course, to-day. A good many people may be willing to do so before this hour to-morrow—if not it will be time then to consider seriously. Meanwhile, the best we can do is to seek innocent relaxation, and I see that Miss Redmond is singing at the opera house."
I was hardly in the mood to enjoy a concert, though I was curious to hear Redmond's daughter; but inaction had grown almost insufferable and when we took our places in the crowded building I felt glad that I had come. The sight of the close-packed multitude and the hum of many voices helped to hold in check my nervous restlessness. Nevertheless, though a lover of music, I scarcely heard a word of the first three songs, and only became intent when a clapping of hands rolled round the building as a dark-haired girl stood forward in the glare of the footlights. It was evidently she who had drawn the perspiring crowd together, and that alone was an eloquent testimonial, considering the temperature.
Ailin Redmond was very plainly dressed, and she smiled her acknowledgments with a simplicity that evidently pleased the audience, while perhaps in compliment to them she wore as sole adornment a few green maple leaves. Then I settled myself to listen, and continued almost spell-bound to the end of the song, wondering where the girl I had seen herding cattle barefooted not very long ago had acquired such power. She was not, from a technical view, perhaps, a finished singer; but Western audiences can feel, if, for the most part, they cannot criticise; and I think she drove the full meaning of the old Irish ballad home to the hearts of all of them. A wailing undertone rang through it, and the effect of the whole was best expressed as uncanny. It was no doubt the strangeness of her themes, and the contrast she presented to her stereotyped rivals, which had led to the girl's success.
In any case the applause was vociferous, and continued until the singer returned and stood still, with hands lightly clasped, looking, not at the expectant audience, but directly at us. There was a curious expression in her eyes, which were fixed steadily on myself and Haldane beside me. Then I gained understanding as she commenced to sing, for there was no mistaking the fact that she meant the song for us. It was a clever resetting of such an old-world ballad as I think no Anglo-Saxon could have written; its burden was a mourning over ancient wrongs and hunger for revenge; but the slender, dark-haired girl held the power to infuse her spirit into me. My lips and hands closed tight as I saw, what I think she wished me to, Helen Boone dying in a sod hovel, and the wagon that bore the dead man rolling through murky blackness across the prairie.
Then I shook all misgivings from me, feeling that though every acre and bushel of grain must go, and we failed, they would be well spent in an attempt to pull down the man who had brought about such things. That others might suffer with him counted little then. They had clutched at their dividends—dividends wrungby him out of the agony of poor men; and their ignorance, which was scarcely possible, did not free them from responsibility.
There was dead stillness for several seconds between the accompanist's final chord and the tumultuous applause which the slightly puzzled audience accorded, while, when it died away, I saw that Boone's forehead was beaded and his lips slightly quivering. Even Haldane appeared less than usually at ease.
"Miss Redmond is a young lady of uncommon and even uncomfortable gifts," he said. "Women, as you will discover some day, Ormesby, are responsible for most of the mischief that goes on, as well as a large amount of good. For instance, it was the encouragement of one of them which helped to start me on this campaign, and now, when slightly doubtful respecting the wisdom of the step, another must sing eerie songs to me with a purpose. I think we will walk round and call on her."
We did so, and Redmond's daughter did not keep us waiting long. She sailed down a broad stairway and stood smiling under the glaring lamps, very slight and slim and graceful, so that it seemed fitting Haldane should bend over the hand she gave him.
"There is no need for my poor compliments after the verdict of the multitude; but did you sing that song to us?" he said.
"Yes," said the girl quietly, while the smile sank out of her eyes. "We have a good many friends and hear much gossip, so I knew at once who was directing the attack on Lane's company. As to the song—I had some slight education down East, you know—its choice was not without a meaning. You will remember how, on the eve of battle, Shakespeare's ghosts prophesied to one man ruin and to another victory?"
"Yes," said Haldane, looking puzzled, "I think I do."
"Then"—and Ailin Redmond seemed to shiver a little—"do you think there are no ghosts on the prairie?"
"I have not met any of them," said Haldane; and the girl answered with infectious gravity: "That does notprove there are none; and, even if you call it a childish fancy, I felt as I sang that they will bring you victory to-morrow."
"You are far too clever and pretty to fill your head with such fancies, my dear," said Haldane. And when we went out into the open he repeated, with a shrug of his shoulders: "In spite of her talents, that is a most uncomfortable young woman; but heaven send her prophecy comes true."
Again I passed a restless night, but our agent procured us admission into the inner precincts of the exchange on the morrow, and as I listened to the eager shouting and watched the excited groups surge about the salesmen, I began to comprehend the fascination that speculation wields over its votaries. Our little spectacled broker, however, held my eye as he flitted to and fro, and now and then with a strident cry gathered a mob of gesticulating men about him. Somebody accepted his offers on each occasion, and he approached us with an almost dismayed expression when the market closed at noon.
"You are an old hand at this business, sir, but I feel it's my duty to warn you that things don't look well," he said. "Your friends of the opposition are evidently able to stand considerable hammering. The sum you mentioned would be no use now to pull us straight; and unless there's a break pretty soon they'll squeeze you like a screw vice on settling day. It would be hard to figure the price they'll make you pay."
"You don't suppose I haven't foreseen such a contingency," said Haldane. "The break will probably come this afternoon—if not, to-morrow. Tell your allies to sell further small lots down at a moderate reduction."
Our lunch was, as the others had been, luxurious; but my throat was dry, and I could not eat. Boone's appetite had also failed, and I may have guessed aright at part of his story when I saw him, after thrice emptying his glass, glance still thirstily at the wine, and then thrust the decanter away.
"It is time to consider," said Haldane. "Unless somebody is soon scared into selling, Lane's companywill be able to fleece us horribly on settling day; but experience of such affairs teaches me that sooner or later the smaller holders must break under a persistent hammering. Now, I don't mind admitting that I did not anticipate such an obstinate defense; and the cause of my interference is mainly this: I had promised to take my younger daughter on a trip to Europe, but am not overfond of traveling, and Lucille is tolerably contented with her own country; so when she first suggested and then insisted that I should make a campaign fund of what it would cost I was not wholly sorry to agree, and figured that, with careful handling, the money might be sufficient to scare Lane into making some rash move. At present it seems that I was mistaken, and that before we break him I must throw Bonaventure into the scale. You may save your protests, gentlemen; I'm a born speculator, and my daughter has set her heart on this thing. If she hadn't, I'd have a very great reluctance to being beaten by a single-horse-power company."
"Every acre of Crane Valley I can find a buyer for goes in, too," I said; and Boone added quietly: "You have my last dollar, sir, already."
Nothing of moment happened until next day, but it appeared to me that there was an almost insupportable tension in the very atmosphere. Our chief broker was clearly excited, and his tone significant, when he called to inform us that, while no other sellers had followed his challenge, only very small parcels of the stock he offered were being taken up; and so the matter stood until the afternoon.
I was now anxious as well as determined. It did not require much knowledge of such affairs for me to realize that unless other persons flung their shares on the market we should be left absolutely at the mercy of the men who had the stock to sell; and while I had nerved myself to part with everything, it would be inexpressibly galling to strip myself to enable Lane to reap a handsome profit. Neither do I think it was mere lust of revenge that impelled me. The man was a menace to the prosperity of every struggling rancher, and had shown no mercy; while—setting aside the fact that he himself deserved none—it seemed that my neighbors' right to existence depended on our efforts to overthrow him. Haldane appeared unusually serious when I glanced at him.
"If nothing happens in an hour we shall have to hold a council as to how we may cut our losses," he said.
Half an hour passed very slowly, and then, warned by a message, we strolled into the market to find there was comparative silence in the long echoing room, as those who congregated there grew languid and drowsy under the heat of the afternoon. Its atmosphere seemed suffocating, and before I had been present long the suspense reacted upon me physically, for my throat resembled a lime-kiln and the superficial arteries of my forehead throbbed painfully. Boone, at intervals, moistened his dry lips with his tongue, and Haldane alone leaned calmly against a pillar jotting down figures in the notebook he held.
Then a few listless men gathered round a broker, and suddenly became intent, while a murmur of interest rose through the drowsy heat. The voices grew louder, the group swelled, and I started at the call: "Any more of you with Territories to sell?"
"It must be Lane's last throw," said Haldane quietly. "Ah! The tide is turning. There is somebody who doesn't belong to us making a deal with him."
The bystanders surged to and fro about the speakers in a manner that reminded me of corraled cattle; others hurried towards them, and our broker's voice rang out: "I'll trade with you at two dollars better."
Then there was a confused shouting, "I'll beat him by another! Two more dollars down!" and every unoccupied man in the room joined the crowd, out of which rose indistinguishable offers, comments, questions, and counter-offers. These swelled into a deafening clamor, but through them all I could hear or feel the hurried beating of my heart, and my voice sounded hollow as I touched Haldane's arm. "Tell me the meaning of it," I said.
"We have beaten them," said Haldane quietly."There are other men hurrying to sell. The weak holders have broken at last, and, because a panic is infectious, most of the others will follow them. Ah! It is beginning. There go the telegrams, and I hear both telephone bells. The fun will commence in earnest when the answers come in; and, meanwhile, a breath of fresher air would brace one. You may have noticed that it's a trifle choky inside here."
I had, but my feet seemed glued to the floor and my eyes on the swaying crowd, so that it cost me an effort to tear them free and follow Boone and Haldane into the open air. He presently led us into the grateful coolness of a big basement saloon, and, scarcely drawing breath, I emptied the contents of a tumbler filled with iced liquid, and then I looked at Boone, who had pushed aside the glass set before him and reached for the ice bowl.
"I have bought my experience, Ormesby," he said, with a smile which once more flashed a sidelight on his history. "In times like these it is better to confine one's self to nature's distillery. A cigar? No, thank you, sir. Do you feel like smoking, Ormesby?"
I did not, for, in spite of the cool beverage, the bite of tobacco would have been insufferable then; but Haldane lay back in a big lounge chewing a cigar. He said nothing whatever, and though he appeared satisfied, the lines on his forehead had deepened and his face appeared older. In spite of my impatience we must have remained nearly an hour before our leader rose a little stiffly and proceeded with unusual slowness towards the scene of the conflict. It was raging fiercely. Some of the speculators howled like wild beasts; others wrestled with their fellows to reach the clear space in the center of the ring; and, standing on the plinth of a column, I could see gesticulating men hard at work with their notebooks. How they were able to record any bargain or to comprehend any offer amid that pandemonium was more than I could discover; for everybody interested appeared to be shouting at once, and the rest of the assembly cheering them on. One irate individual, indeed, dragged a neighbor backwards by the collar, and then plungedblindly into the midst of the circle when the other, retaliating, drove his hat down over his eyes.
Haldane listened keenly for several minutes, and then turned to me. "It's going our way, Ormesby. Holders are getting out as fast as they can, and various speculative gentlemen who have been waiting for the first sign of weakness are hammering them. We have done our part, and can safely leave the rest to them. See if you can give our broker this note for me, and then, if you have had sufficient excitement, we will take a drive somewhere until dinner's ready."
I had certainly had sufficient excitement in that form to last the rest of my life, and I managed to reach the broker without personal injury, after which we solaced ourselves with a drive through the city and across some very uninteresting prairie. I saw little of either, and was conscious of scarcely anything beyond the all-important fact that Lane's power was broken, and henceforward my neighbors would enjoy the fruits of their own labor instead of swelling heavy dividends with three-fourths of them.
When we returned to the hotel our agent, who appeared in an exultant mood, was waiting us, and he positively beamed upon Haldane as he said: "It's an honor to work for a man with your nerve and judgment, sir, and we have whipped the last grit out of them. I let up altogether when I saw every outside 'bear' come ramping in; and, if you're inclined that way, we might cover a little quietly without stiffening prices."
I do not know what Haldane's instructions were. Indeed, the reaction of relief prevented my remembering anything at all very clearly, except that, as we sat at dinner, Haldane said: "I shouldn't wonder if those physicians were right, and I think I have made my last stake this afternoon. I dare say you understand, Ormesby, that as we could now purchase the stock below the price at which we sold there will be a profit in the transaction. Individually, I did not undertake this matter as a speculation."
Haldane made light of our anxiety lest he should havesuffered. "I have long known I should have to sink into idleness, and it was a good piece of work to retire on," he said. "But what about the profit?"
I had no hesitation about the answer. "It was no desire of profit that brought me here; and as one experience of the kind is sufficient, I intend henceforward to stick to my horses and cattle. I will not touch a dollar of the money beyond actual expenses, and would propose that, setting aside any portion necessary to secure us against reprisals and to complete our work, the rest should be handed to Miss Haldane to distribute as she thinks best in charity."
Boone expressed his full compliance, and Haldane smiled at me. "Do you think you can run up a contra account in that way, Ormesby?"
"I believe we are justified; but, justified or not, I will not touch a dollar of the gains," I said. "I am going back to the prairie to-morrow, to express our deepest gratitude to Miss Haldane. As to yourself, sir, a good many hard-pressed men will never forget you."
Then Boone rose up gravely with a wine-glass in his hand. "The task is too big for Ormesby, or any other man," he said. "May every good thing follow the Mistress of Bonaventure."
The binders were clanking through the wheat when I next met Haldane at Crane Valley. Having embarked upon his new career with characteristic energy, he rode over from Bonaventure with his daughter to watch our harvesting, and incidentally came near bewildering me with his questions. Some of them were hard to answer, and I felt a trace of irritation, as well as surprise, that a few hours' observation should enable him to hit upon the best means of overcoming difficulties which had cost me months of experimenting to discover.
Thorn, I remember, stared at him in wonder, and afterwards observed: "You and I have just got to keep on trying until we find out the best way of fixing things, and if our way's certain, it's often expensive. That man just chews on his cigar, and it comes to him. When I take up my located land and get worried about the money, I'm going to try cigar-smoking."
"You will have considerably less of it if you experiment with the brand that Haldane keeps," I answered, jerking the lines, and my binder rolled on again behind the weary team. When each minute was worth a silver coin, we dare not spare the beasts, and I had worn out four of them in as many days, and then sat almost nodding in the driving seat, with a deep sense of satisfaction in my heart which I was too tired to express.
Oat sheaves ridging the bleached prairie blazed in yellow ranks before my heavy eyes, and each heave of the binder's arms flung out behind me a truss of golden wheat. The glare was blinding, for we worked under the full heat of a scorching afternoon, as we had done, and would do, by the pale light of the moon. Thick dust rolled about us, clogging my lashes and fouling thecoats of the beasts, while the crackle of the flinty stems, the rasp of shearing knives, the rhythm of trampling hoofs, and the clink of metal throbbing harmoniously through the drowsy heat, were flung back by other machines at work across the grain. There is, however, a limit to human powers, and I must have been driving mechanically, and nearly asleep, when a clicking warned me that it was time to fit another spool of twine. I remember that during the operation I envied the endurance of the soulless, but otherwise almost human, machine.
Steel came up with his binder before it was completed, a creak and thud and tinkle swelling in musical crescendo as the jaded team loomed nearer through the dust. There was a flash of varnished wood that rose and fell, and twinkling metal, and I saw the driver sitting stiffly with hands, that were almost blackened, clenched on the lines, peering straight before him out of half-closed eyes, while the moisture that ran from his forehead washed copper-tinted channels through the grime. It was by an effort he held himself to his task; but that was nothing unusual, for the prairie does not yield up her riches lightly, and by the golden wake he left behind him the effort was justified. The earth had been fruitful that season, and harvest had not failed; while, having sown in deep dejection, uncertain who would reap, it was a small thing to strain one's strength to the utmost to gather the bounteous yield. We were already free, and every revolution of the binder's arms set us so much farther on the road to prosperity.
Twice I jerked the lines, but the team stood still; and I was preparing to encourage them more vigorously, when Haldane and his daughter approached. Both had insisted on my leaving them to their own devices, and now Lucille appeared to regard the beasts and myself compassionately.
"They look very tired, and they have done so much," she said, glancing down the long rows of piled-up grain. "Is not that sufficient to justify your resting a little?"
"I am afraid not," I answered with a somewhat rueful smile. "You see, prosperity has made us greedy, while all the grain cut up to the present belongs to Lane."
The girl looked indignant—Haldane thoughtful. "I have been wondering whether you would feel inclined to contest his claim for the balance of the debt," he said. "Considering that he has taken from you twice the value of his loan, and the story in Miss Redmond's book, you might be ethically and legally justified."
"No," I said. "I made the bargain, and I intend to keep my part of it. That accomplished, I shall have the fewer scruples about using every effort to utterly crush the man. All we cut henceforward is my own, and I can only repeat that I should be glad to devote every bushel to help forward his defeat."
"I think you are right," said Lucille Haldane, with a trace of pride in her approval, though her eyes were mischievous as she continued: "It is, however, unfortunate you are so very busy, because, as father is riding, and as the team are a little wild, we hoped you would drive them home for me."
I climbed down from the iron saddle, shouting to Steel, and Lucille smiled demurely. "We could not tear you away from that machine when you would grudge every minute," she said. "Remember that Bonaventure is a long way off, and, even if we allowed it, you could hardly return before to-morrow."
I nevertheless fancied she was pleased at my eagerness, and, for Haldane had passed on, I felt suddenly oppressed by the recognition of what I owed her. Yet had it been possible I should not have lightened the debt. I looked down at her gravely, noticing how young and fresh and slender she seemed—bright as the blaze of sunshine in which she stood—and then I pointed towards the long ranks of sheaves and the sea of stately ears.
"I am not in the least inconsistent, and should not be if every moment were thrice as precious," I said. "I remember most plainly that you gave me all this.Strange as it may seem, it is, nevertheless, perfectly true."
The girl blushed prettily, and then glanced from me towards the tired horses and the standing machine, after which her eyes rested with approval on the stalwart form of Thorn, who came up urging on his plodding team.
"It would be something to be proud of, if one could believe you, Rancher; but I am not wholly pleased with the last part of the speech," she said, with a faint, half-mocking inclination of the head. "I can guess what you are thinking, and you are a trifle slow to learn. Women are very well in their own place, are they not? However, you find it perplexing when they will not stay there, but, because some of them grow tired of breathing incense, they descend and interfere in masculine affairs. It is truly strange that there should be more forces in the world than those centered in big dusty men and splendid horses!"
"You must be a witch; but I am learning by degrees," I said. And the girl laughed merrily.
"You have not progressed very far, to judge by the comparison. Witches were usually pictured as malevolent, old, and ugly."
"I meant a beneficent fairy; but the surprise was not quite unnatural," I said. "Who could suspect in such a slender and fragile person the power she possesses to banish gloom and poverty? Legions of men and horses could not accomplish so much."
"Now you go too far in the opposite direction," and my companion shook her head. "It is the sense of balance you need."
The sun-blaze turned the clustered hair under her wide hat into the likeness of burnished gold—the gold of our own Northwest, with a coppery warmth in it—but the light in her hazel eyes eclipsed its brilliancy. The lithe figure fitted its gorgeous background of yellow radiancy, and again I felt all my pulses quicken as I paid Haldane's daughter silent homage. Magnificent as the wheat, alike to eye and understanding, whenone remembered its mission, her presence seemed the crown and complement of all that splendid field. It was hard to refrain from telling her so, and possibly my voice was not pitched quite in its normal key when I said: "It is short of the truth, but there is just one thing I should like to know, and that is whether any other motive than pure benevolence prompted you."
"Why?"
Then I answered boldly: "Because it would be worth the rest to fancy that in some small measure it was due to individual goodwill towards Rancher Ormesby."
The girl looked away from me across the grain, and, as she turned her head, it was with a thrill of pleasure, which may not have been wholly artistic, that I noticed the polished whiteness of her neck and a dainty, pink-tinted little ear that peeped out from the clusters of her hair. Then she laughed, perhaps at Thorn, who argued quaintly, if forcibly, with his reluctant beasts, and turned to me.
"If you desire another motive, you may conclude, as you heard before, that it was love of justice; which really ought to satisfy you."
"It is a creditable one," I answered. "But I fear that it does not."
We left Crane Valley shortly, Haldane on horseback, his daughter—because something had gone wrong with the Bonaventure vehicle—beside me in our light wagon, which, if it in no way resembled the cumbrous contrivance bearing that name in England, was, I was uneasily conscious, by no means overclean. On the way we met the threshers, and stronger teams hauling the machines towards Crane Valley, for our threshing is done mostly in the field. We stopped to bid them hurry, and Haldane, learning they had met Gordon, whom he desired to see, bade us proceed while he looked for the rancher. I was not sorry to do so, and accordingly it was without him that we approached the dip to the Sweetwater hollow.
The afternoon was waning, and the air very still. The tiny birch leaves had ceased their whispering; butthe sound of running water came musically out of their cool shadow. All the winding valley was rolled in green, an oasis of verdure in the sweep of white-bleached prairie; and, pulling the team up between the first of the slender trunks, I pointed down towards the half-seen lane of sliding water.
"I might never have known you if it had not been for a trifling accident by yonder willow clump," I said. "I remember your sister suggested that very night that our meeting might be the first scene of a drama, and, considering all that has happened since then, her prediction has proved strangely accurate."
Lucille Haldane nodded. "It is a coincidence that I was thinking of the same thing, and wondering, now that the play must be drawing towards its close, what the end will be. The meeting must, however, have been unlucky for you, because all your troubles date from that beginning."
"And my privileges," I answered, smiling. "The present is at least a happy augury. When I met Boone beside the river there was not a leaf on the birches, and their branches were moaning under a blast which makes one shiver from mere recollection. Remember the harvest at Crane Valley, and look down on yonder shining water and cool greenery. It was you who brought us the sunshine, and even the memory of the dark days is now melting like that night's snow."
"That is exaggerated sentiment, and I have heard invertebrate youths in the cities say such things more neatly," commented the girl, with an air of mock severity, and then glanced dreamily into the hollow; while, as silence succeeded, fate sent a little sting-fly to take a part—as, to confound man's contriving, trifles often do—in ending the play. The team were ill-broken broncos which had already given me trouble, and when the fly bored with envenomed proboscis through the hide of one, the beast flung up his head and kicked savagely.
The reins which I held loosely were whisked away, and before it was possible to recover them both horses had bolted. The light wagon lurched giddily, and thenext moment it swept like a toboggan down the declivity.
"Hold fast!" I shouted, leaning recklessly down; and the first shock of enervating consternation vanished when I gripped the reins. Still, there was cold fear at my heart when, bracing both feet against the wagon-front, I strove uselessly to master the team. The brutes' mouths seemed made of iron, impervious to the bit; the slope was long and steep; birches and willows straggled athwart it everywhere; and the soil was treacherous. I could not break them from the gallop, and not daring to risk the sharp bends of the zigzag trail, I let them go straight for the slide of water in the bottom of the hollow.
It was not the first time I had been run away with. A fall from a stumbling horse or a wagon upset is a very common and, considering the half-tamed beasts we use, by no means surprising accident in our country; but at first it was only by a fierce effort I shook off an almost overmastering terror as I contemplated the danger to my companion. I hazarded one glance at her and saw that her face was white and set, then dare look at nothing but the reeling trees ahead. I strained every sinew to swing the team clear of them. Sometimes the beasts responded, sometimes they did not, and it was by a miracle the trunks went by. The wagon bounced more wildly, the slope grew steeper, and even if I could have checked the team this would only have precipitated a catastrophe. So, helpless, I clung to the reins until the end came suddenly.
Several birches barred our way; the brutes would swerve neither to right nor to left; and with a hoarse shout of warning I strove desperately to hold them straight for the one passage, wondering whether there was room enough in the narrow gap between the trunks. It was immediately evident that there was not. Simultaneously with a heavy shock, the wagon appeared to dissolve beneath me and I was hurled bodily into the air. Fortunately I alighted upon soft ground, headforemost, and perhaps, for that reason, escaped serious injury. It is possible that, in different circumstances, I might have lain still partly stupefied, or spent some time in ascertaining whether any bones had broken; but, as it was, I sprang to the overturned wagon, breathless with fear.
Lucille Haldane lay, mercifully, just clear of it, a pitiful white figure, and my heart stood still as I bent over her. She was pale and limp as a crushed lily, and as beautiful; and it was with awe I dropped on one knee beside her. There was no sign of any breathing, coldness seemed to emanate from her waxlike skin, and though I had seen many accidents, I dare scarcely venture to lay a finger on the slackly throbbing artery in her wrist. Then I groaned aloud, borne down with an overwhelming grief, for with the suddenness of a lightning flash I knew the words spoken but such a little while ago had been more than true. It was she who had brought all the sunshine and sweetness into my life. Reason and power of action returned with the knowledge, and I started for the river at a breathless run, smashing savagely through every cluster of dwarf willows which barred my way, filled my hat with the cold water, and, returning, dashed it on her face. The action appeared brutal, but terror was stronger than any sentimental fancies then, and I dare neglect no chance with that precious life at stake.
The slender form moved a little, and it was with relief unspeakable I heard a fluttering sigh; then I raised the wet head upon my knee, and fell to chafing the cold hands vigorously. The time may have been five minutes, or less, but I had never spent such long days in my life as those seconds while I waited, quivering in every limb, for some further sign of returning animation. It was very still in the hollow, and the song of the hurrying water maddened me. Its monotonous cadence might drown the faint breathing for which I listened with such intensity. Even in that space of agony two other incidents flashed through my memory, and I understood my fear during the dark voyage, and on the moonlit night when the cars lurched across the bridge. Lifewould be very empty if the breath died out of that tender, shaken body.
The suspense was mercifully ended. Lucille Haldane half opened her eyes, and looked up at me without recognition, closed them, and caught at her breath audibly, while I held her hands fast in a restraining grasp. Then, as she looked up again, the blood came back, mantling the clear skin, and she said, brokenly: "I fell out of the wagon, did I not? How long have I been here?—and my head is wet. I—I must get up."
I still held one hand fast; but, stooping, slipped one arm beneath her shoulder and raised her a little. "You must wait another few moments first."
The girl appeared reluctant, but made no resistance, and when finally I raised her to her feet I found it was necessary to lean against a birch trunk to hide the fit of trembling that seized me.
"I am not much hurt," she said; and my voice broke as I interjected: "Thank God for it!"
I fancied that Lucille Haldane, shaken as she was, flashed a swift sidelong glance at me, and that the returning color did not diminish in her cheek; then she said hurriedly: "Yes, I am not hurt, but I see the horses yonder, and you had better make sure of them. We are still some distance from home."
I turned without further speech, and found the vicious brutes, which had broken the wagon-pole, held fast by the tangled gear which had fouled a fallen tree. It was almost with satisfaction I saw the bolter had lamed himself badly. There was a change in Lucille Haldane when I led them back. She had recovered her faculties, but not her old frank friendliness, and said, almost sharply: "The wagon is useless. What do you propose to do?"
"To fold up the rug in the box and make some kind of saddle for you," I said, and proceeded to do so, cutting up the gear, which was almost new, so recklessly that my companion seemed even then surprised.
"Do you know that you are destroying a good many dollars' worth of harness?" she asked.
"It would not greatly matter if I spoiled a dozen setsso long as you reached home safely, and it is a very small fine for my carelessness," I answered. "I should never have forgiven myself if you had been injured; but are you—quite—sure that you are none the worse?"
"I do not think I am much the better," said the girl. "Still, I am not badly hurt, and it was not your fault."
Though still languid in her movements, she seemed chary of accepting much assistance when I helped her into the improvised saddle, and then, because the other horse was useless, I waded through the ford with my hand on the bridle. It was some distance to Bonaventure, and my companion was not communicative, but I did not find the silence irksome. Conflicting emotions would have made me slow of speech, and I was content with the fact that she rode beside me whole in limb and unspoiled in beauty. Indeed, so much had the sight of her lying white and apparently lifeless impressed me that I cast many apprehensive glances in her direction before I could convince myself that all was well.
Haldane, who overtook us, desired me to remain at Bonaventure; but every pair of hands was needed at Crane Valley, and I wished for solitude. So, stiffly mounting a borrowed horse, I set off homeward across the prairie. I had risen at three that morning, after an insufficient rest, and was worn out in body, but clear in mind, for a time, at least, while the brilliancy of the starshine and the silence of the waste helped me to think. I was by turns thankful, ashamed, dejected, and eager to clutch at an elusive hope. Illumination had followed disillusion, and I knew at last that even while I was uplifted by vain imaginings, Lucille Haldane had, little by little, and unwittingly, extended her dominion over my heart. I had, it seemed, spent the best years of my life striving after an unattainable and shadowy ideal, while perhaps the real living substance, endowed with the best of all pertaining to flesh and blood, lay within my grasp. It was true that the mistress of Bonaventure was much too good for me; but with all her graces she was of like fiber to us, and her few weaknessesrendered her more desirable in proof of the fact. That Beatrice Haldane was worthy of all adulation remained equally true; but it was hard to comprehend how, blinded by folly, I had mistaken the respect I paid her for the warm tide of passion which now pulsed through me. Neither was the latter of sudden origin, for, looking back, I could see how, little by little, and imperceptibly, admiration, gratitude, and tenderness, had merged into it until terror opened my eyes and full understanding came at last.
There remained, however, one burning question—did Lucille Haldane, in any degree, reciprocate what I felt?—and this lacked an answer. Knowing her generous nature, it was clear that what she had done for me had not been done wittingly for a lover; but, on the other hand, I could recall many trifles which may have had their significance. Thus alternate hopes and fears surged through my brain until, when I had decided that, being yet a poor man, I must wait the advent of the railroad, at least, before putting my fate to the test, my thoughts commenced to wander, and I must have guided the horse mechanically, for his sudden stopping roused me with a jerk to recognize the corral at Crane Valley. There is a limit beyond which no emotion may galvanize into continued activity the exhausted body, and we not infrequently reach it on the prairie. I do not know whether I was asleep or awake when I led the beast into the stable, but the sun was high when Sally Steel roused me from a couch of trampled hay unpleasantly near his feet.
"You have had a tolerable sleep, and don't seem particular where you camp," she said. "Come right along, and do your best with the second breakfast I've got waiting."
I glanced with consternation at my watch. "Why didn't one of the others waken me? Do you know it's ten o'clock, Sally?" I asked.
"Just because I wouldn't let them! You've got to last through harvest, anyway, and I guess Miss Haldanewouldn't have much use for a dead man," said Sally, and was retiring with mischievous laughter, when I recalled her.
"You have been too good a friend to me to make such jokes again," I said.
"I'm not the only one. All the folks are talking," said the girl.
Thereupon I answered grimly: "If I hear any of them amusing themselves in that fashion I shall do my best to choke them."