mm \ GJrL HAROLD BINDLOS LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY BY THE SA31E AUTHOR The Cattle Baron's Daughter Alton of Somasco Dust of Conflict Winston of the Prairie For Jacinta Delilah of the Snows By Right of Purchase lorimer of the northwest Greater Power i Thurston of Orchard Valley By HAROLD BINDLOSS Author of " By Right of Purchase," " Lorimer of the Northwest," "Alton ot Somasco," etc. With Frontispiece Bt W. HERBERT DUNTON A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York (1110] X5fW Copyright, 1910, Bt FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY All Hghts reserved February, 1910 CONTENTS CHAPTEB PAGE I. 1 II. A Disillusion . : . 12 III. Geoffrey's First Contract . 21 IV. Geoffrey Makes Progress . 32 V. The Legends of Crosbie Ghyll 44 VI. 56 VII. The Breaking of the Jam . . . 67 VIII. 77 IX. 88 X. 96 XI. 104 XII. Geoffrey Tests His Fate . . 116 XIII. 127 XIV. The Work of an Enemy . 139 XV. A Great Undertaking .... . 150 XVI. Millicent Turns Traitress . 160 XVII. The Infatuation of English Jim . 171 XVIII. The Bursting of the Sluice . . 182 XIX. The Abduction of Black Christy . 194 XX. Under the Stanley Pines . . 205 XXI. 215 CONTENTS CHAPTEB PAGE XXII. A Eepeieve .224 XXIII. The Ultimatum 236 XXIV. An Unexpected Ally 246 XXV. Millicent's Revolt 255 XXVI. A Reckless Journey 265 XXVII. Mrs. Savine Speaks Her Mind . . 276 XXVIII. Leslie Steps Out .. 286 XXIX. A Revelation ... ... .296 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY Thurston of Orchard Valley CHAPTER I " thurston's folly " It was a pity that Geoffrey Thurston was following in his grandfather's footsteps, the sturdy dalefolk said, and sev- eral of them shook their heads solemnly as they repeated the observation when one morning the young man came striding down the steep street of a village in the North Country. The cluster of gray stone houses nestled beneath the scarred face of a crag, and, because mining opera- tions had lately been suspended and work was scarce just then, pale-faced men in moleskin lounged about the slate- slab doorsteps. Above the village, and beyond the sum- mit of the crag, the mouth of a tunnel formed a black blot on the sunlit slopes of sheep-cropped grass stretching up to the heather, which gave place in turn to rock out-crop on the shoulders of the fell. The loungers glanced at the tunnel regretfully, for that mine had furnished most of them with their daily bread. " It's in t' blood," said one, nodding toward the young man. "Ay, headstrong folly's bred in t' bone of them. an' it's safer to counter an angry bull than a Thurston of Crosbie Ghyll. It's like his grandfather — roughed out of the old hard whinstane he is." A murmur of approval followed, for the listeners knew there was a measure of truth in this; but it ceased when the pedestrian passed close to them with long, vigorous strides. Though several raised their hands half-way to their caps in grudging salute, Geoffrey Thurston, who ap- peared preoccupied, looked at none of them. Notwith- standing his youth, there were lines on his forehead and his brows were wrinkled over his eyes, while his carriage 2 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY suggested strength of limb and energy. Tall in stature his frame looked wiry rather than heavily built. His face was resolute, for both square jaw and steady brown eyes suggested tenacity of purpose. The hands that swung at his sides had been roughened by labor with pick and drill. Yet in spite of the old clay-stained shooting suit and shapeless slouch hat with the grease on the front of it, where a candle had been set, there was a stamp of command, and even refinement, about him. He was a Thurston of Crosbie, one of a family the members of which had long worked their own diminishing lands among the rugged fells that stretch between the West Eiding and the Solway. The Thurstons had been a reckless, hard-living race, with a stubborn, combative disposition. Most of them had found scope for their energies in wresting a few more barren acres from the grasp of moss and moor; but sev- eral times an eccentric genius had scattered to the winds what the rest had won, and Geoffrey seemed bent on play- ing the traditional role of spendthrift. There were, how- ever, excuses for him. He was an ambitious man, and had studied mechanical science under a famous engineer. Perhaps, because the surface of the earth yielded a sus- tenance so grudgingly, a love of burrowing was born in the family. Copper was dear and the speculative public well disposed towards British mines. When current prices permitted it, a little copper had been worked from time immemorial in the depths of Crosbie Fell, so Geoffrey, continuing where his grandfather had ceased, drove the ancient adit deeper into the hill, mortgaging field by field to pay for tools and men, until, when the little property had well-nigh gone, he came upon a fault or break in the strata, which made further progress almost impossible. When Thurston reached the mouth of the adit, he turned and looked down upon the poor climbing meadows under the great shoulder of the Fell. Beyond these, a few weatherbeaten buildings forming a rude quadrangle "THURSTON'S FOLLY" 3 pierced by one tall archway, stood beside a tarn that winked like polished steel. He sighed as his glance rested upon them. For many generations they had sheltered the Thurstons of Crosbie; but, unless he could stoop to soil his hands in a fashion revolting to his pride, a strange master would own them before many months had gone. An angry glitter came into his eyes, and his face grew set, as, placing a lighted candle in his hat, he moved forward into the black adit. Twenty minutes had passed when Thurston stood on the brink of a chasm where some movement of the earth's crust had rent the rocks asunder. Beside him was a min- ing engineer, whose fame for skill was greater than his reputation for integrity. Both men had donned coarse overalls, and Melhuish, the mining expert, held his candle so that its light fell upon his companion as well as upon the dripping surface of the rock. Moisture fell from the wet stone into the gloomy rift, and a faint monotonous splashing rose up from far below. Melhuish, however, was watching Thurston too intently to notice anything else. He was a middle-aged man, with a pale, puffy face and avaricious eyes. He was well-known to speculative finan- ciers, who made much more than the shareholders of certain new mining companies. " It's interesting geologically — wholly abnormal con- sidering the stratification, though very unfortunate for you," said Melhuish. " I give you my word of honor that when I advised you to push on the heading I never ex- pected this. However, there it is, and unless you're will- ing to consider certain suggestions already made, I can't see much use in wasting any more money. As I said, my friends would, under the circumstances, treat you fairly." Thurston's face was impassive, and Melhuish, who thought that his companion bore himself with a curious equanimity for a ruined man, did not see that Thurston's hard fingers were clenched savagely on the handle of a pick. 4 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY "I fancied you understood my opinions, and I haven't changed them/' said Geoffrey. " I asked you to meet me here to-day to consider whether the ore already in sight would be worth reduction, and you say, ' Xo.' You can advise your friends, when you see them, that I'm not in- clined to assist them in a deliberate fraud upon the public." Melhuish laughed. " You are exaggerating, and people seem perfectly willing to pay for their experience, whether they acquire it over copper, lead or tin. Besides, there's an average commercial probability that somebody will find good ore after going down far enough, and your part would be easy. You take a moderate price as vendor, we advancing enough to settle the mortgage. Sign the pa- pers my friends will send you, and keep your mouth shut." " And their expert wouldn't see that fault ? " asked Geoffrey. Melhuish smiled pityingly before he answered: " The gentlemen I speak of keep an expert who cer- tainly wouldn't see any more than was necessary. The indications that deceived me are good enough for any- bod} r . Human judgment is always liable to error, and there are ways of framing a report without committing the person who makes it. May I repeat that it's a fair business risk, and whoever takes this mine should strike the lead if sufficient capital is poured in. It would be desirable for you to act judiciously. My financial friends, I understand, have been in communication with the peo« pie who hold your mortgages." Geoffrey Thurston's temper, always fiery, had been sorely tried. Dropping his pick, he gripped the tempter by the shoulder with fingers that held him like a vice. He pressed Melhuish backward until they stood within a foot of the verge of the black rift. Melhuish's face was gray □ the candle-light as he heard the dislodged pebbles splash sullenly into the water, fathoms beneath. He had heard stories of the vagaries of the Thurstons of Crosbie, "THURSTON'S FOLLY" 5 and it was most unpleasant to stand on the brink of eternity, in the grasp of one of them. Suddenly Geoffrey dropped his hands. " You need bet- ter nerves in your business, Melhuish," he said quietly. " One would hardly have fancied you would be so startled at a harmless joke intended to test them for you. There have been several spendthrifts and highly successful drunkards in my family, but, with the exception of my namesake, who was hanged like a Jacobite gentleman for taking, sword in hand, their despatches from two of Cumberland's dragoons, we have hitherto drawn the line at stealing." " I'm not interested in genealogy, and I don't appre- ciate jests of the sort you have just tried," Melhuish an- swered somewhat shakily. "I'll take your word that you meant no harm, and I request further and careful con- sideration before you return a definite answer to my friends' suggestions." " You shall have it in a few days," Geoffrey promised ; and Melhuish, who determined to receive the answer un- der the open sunlight, and, if possible, with assistance near at hand, turned toward the mouth of the adit. Be- cause he thought it wiser, he walked behind Geoffrey. The afternoon was not yet past when Thurston stood leaning on the back of a stone seat outside a quaint old hall, which had once been a feudal fortalice and was now attached to an unprofitable farm. Because the im- poverished gentleman, who held a long lease on the ancient building, had let one wing to certain sportsmen, several of Geoffrey's neighbors had gathered on the in- dilferently-kept lawn to enjoy a tennis match. Miss Millicent Austin sat in an angle of the stone seat. Her little feet, encased in white shoes, reposed upon a cushion that one of the sportsmen had insisted on bringing to her. Her hands lay idly folded in her lap. The delicate hands were characteristic, for Millicent Austin was slight and dainty. With pale gold hair and pink and white com- 6 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY plexion, she was a perfect type of Saxon beauty, though some of her rivals said the color of her eyes was too light a blue. They also added that the blue eyes were very quick to notice where their owners interests lay. An indefinite engagement had long existed between the girl and the man beside her, and at one time they had cherished a degree of affection for each other; but when the merry, high-spirited girl returned from London changed into a calculating woman, Geoffrey was bound up, mind and body, in his mine, and Millicent began to wonder whether, with her advantages, she might not do better than to marry a dalesman burdened by heavy debts. They formed a curious contrast, the man brown-haired, brown-eyed, hard-handed, rugged of feature, and some- times rugged of speech ; and the dainty woman who ap- peared born for a life of ease and luxury. " Beauty and the beast ! " said one young woman to her companion as she laid by her racquet. " I suppose he has the money ? " " Unless his mine proves successful I don't think either will have much; but if Miss Austin is a beauty in a mild way, he's a noble beast, one very likely to turn the tables upon a rash hunter," was the answer. " And yet he's stalking blindly into the snare. Alas, poor lion ! " " You seem interested in him. I'm not partial to wild beasts myself," remarked her companion, and the other smiled as she answered : " Hardly that, but I know the family history, and they are a curious race witli great capabilities for good or evil. It all depends upon how tbey are led, because nobody could drive a Thurston. It is rather, I must con- fess, an instinctive prejudice against the woman beside him. I do not like, and would not trust, Miss Austin, though, of course, except to you, my dear, I would not av so." The young speaker glanced a moment towards the pair, and then passed on with a slight frown upon her honest r »» "THURSTON'S FOLLY face, for Thurston bent over his companion with some- thing that suggested deadly earnestness in his attitude, and the spectator assumed that Millicent Austin's head was turned away from him, because she possessed a fine profile and not because of excessive diffidence. Nor was the observer wrong, for Millicent did little without a pur- pose, and was just then thinking keenly as she said: " I am very sorry to hear about your misfortune, Geoffrey, but there is a way of escape from most disasters if one will look for it, you know, and if you came to terms with them I understand those London people would, at least, recoup you for your expenditure." " You have heard of that ! " exclaimed Geoffrey sharply, displeased that his fiancee, who had been away, should betray so accurate a knowledge of all that concerned his business affairs. " Of course I did. I made Tom tell me. You will agree with them, will you not ? " the girl replied. " No," said Geoffrey, with a slight huskiness. " I wish I could, but it is impossible, and I am not pleased that Tom should tell you what I was waiting to confide to you myself. Let that pass, for I want you to listen to me. The old holding will have to go, and there is little room for a poor man in this overcrowded country. As you know, certain property will revert to me eventually, but, remembering what is in our blood, I dare not trust myself to drag out a life of idleness or monotonous drudgery, waiting for the future here. The curse is a very real thing — and it would not be fair to you. Now I can save enough from the wreck to start us without posi- tive hardship over seas, and George has written offering me a small share in his Australian cattle-run. You shall want for nothing, Millicent, that toil can win you, and I know that, with you to help me, I shall achieve at least a competence." Millicent, who glanced up at him as if she were care- fully studying him, could see that the man spoke with 8 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY conviction. She knew that his power of effort and dogged obstinacy would carry him far toward obtaining whatever his heart desired. She dropped her long lashes as he continued : " Hitherto, I have overcome the taint I spoke of — you knew what it was when you gave me your promise — and working hard, with you to cheer me, in a new land under the open sun, I shall crush it utterly. Semi-poverty, with an ill-paid task that demanded but half my energies, would try you, Millicent, and be dangerous to me. What I say sounds very selfish, doesn't it — but you will come?" There was an appeal in his voice which touched the listener. It was seldom a Thurston of Crosbie asked help from anyone; but she had no wish to encourage Geoffrey in what she considered his folly, and shook her head with a pretty assumption of petulance. " Don't be sensational." she said with a wave of her hand. " You are prone to exaggeration, and, of course, I will not go with you. How could I help you to chase wild cattle? Now, try to be sensible! Come to terms with these company people, and then you need not go." " Would you have me a thief ? " asked Geoffrey, gazing down upon her with a fierce resentment in his look of reproach, and the girl shrank from him a little. " Xo, but, so far as I understand it, tins is an ordinary business transaction, and if these people are willing to buy the mine, why should you refuse?" she returned in a temporizing tone. If Thurston was less in love with Millicent Austin than he had been, he hardly realized it then. lie was dis- appointed, and his forehead contracted as he struggled with as heavy a temptation as could have assailed the honor of any man. Millicent was very fair to look upon, as she turned to him with entreaty and anxiety in her face. Nevertheless, he answered wearily: "It is not an ordinary business transaction. Those people would pay "THURSTON'S FOLLY" 9 me with the general public's money, and when the mine proves profitless, as it certainly will, they would turn the deluded shareholders loose on me." " There are always risks in mining," Millicent observed significantly. " The investing public understands that, doesn't it? Of course, I would not have you dishonest, but, Geoffrey " Thurston was patient in action, but seldom in speech, and he broke out hotly : " Many a woman has sent a man to his damnation for a little luxury, but I expected help from you. Millicent, if I assist those swindlers and stay here dragging out the life of a gentleman pauper on a dole of stolen money, I shall go down and down, dragging you with me. If you will come out to a new country with me, I know you will never regret it. Whatever is best worth winning over there, I will win for you. Can't you see that we stand at the crossroads, and whichever wajr we choose there can be no turning back ! Think, and for God's sake think well ! The decision means everything to you and me." Atrain Millicent was aware of an unwilling admiration for the speaker, even though she had little for his senti- ments. He stood erect, with a grim look on his face, his nostrils quivering, and his lips firmly set — stubborn, vindictive, powerful. Though his strength was untrained, she knew that he was a man to trust — great in his very failings, with no meanness in his composition, and clearly born for risky enterprise and hazardous toil. She was a little afraid of him, a fact which was not in itself un- pleasant ; but she dreaded poverty and hardship ! With a shrug of the shoulder upon which he had laid his hand, she said : " I think you are absurd to-day ; you are hurting me. This melodramatic pose approaches the ludicrous, and I have really no patience with your folly. A little period of calm reflection may prove beneficial, and I will leave you to it. Clara is beckoning me." 10 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLE1 She turned away, and Thurston, after vainly looking around for Clara, stalked sullenly into the hall, where he flung himself down in a chair beside an open window. It did not please him to see Millieent take her place be- fore the net in the tennis court and to hear her laugh ring lightly across the lawn. A certain sportsman named Leslie, who had devoted himself to Miss Austin's service, watched him narrowly from a corner of the big hall. "You look badly hipped over something, Thurston," commented the sportsman presently. " I suppose it's the mine, and would like to offer my sympathy. Might I recommend a brandy-and-soda, one of those Cubanos, and confidence? Tom left the bottle handy for you." In spite of the family failing, or, perhaps, because it was the only thing he feared, Thurston had been an abstemious man. Now, however, he emptied one stiff tumbler at a gulp, and the soda frothed in the second, when he noticed a curious smile, for just a moment, in the eyes of his companion. The smile vanished im- mediately, but Thurston had seen and remembered. It was characteristic of him that, before two more seconds had passed, the glass crashed into splinters in the grate. "Quite right!" exclaimed Leslie, nodding. "When one feels as you evidently do, a little of that sort of con- solation is considerably better than too much. You don't, however, appear to be in a companionable humor, and perhaps I had better not intrude on you." During the rest of the afternoon, Thurston saw little of Millieent and Leslie was much with her. The weather changed suddenly when at dusk Geoffrey rode home. In forecast of winter, a bitter breeze sighed across the heather and set the harsh grasses moaning eerily. The sky was somber overhead; scarred foil and towering pike had faded to blurs of dingy gray, and thfr ghostly whistling of curlew emphasized the emptiness of the darkening moor. The evening's mood suited Geoffrey's, and he rode slowly with loose bridle. The bouquet of the "THURSTON'S FOLLY" 11 brandy had awakened within him a longing that he dreaded, and though, hitherto, he had been too intent upon his task to trouble about his character, it was borne in upon him that he must stand fast now or never. But it was not the thought of his own future which first appealed to him. Those who had gone before him had rarely counted consequences when tempted by either wine or women, and he would have risked that freely. Geoffrey was, however, in his own eccentric fashion, a just man, and he dared not risk bringing disaster upon Millicent. So he rode slowly, thinking hard, until the horse, which seemed affected by its master's restlessness, plunged as a dark figure rose out of the heather. " Hallo, is it you, Evans ? " asked the rider, with a forced laugh. " I thought it was the devil. He's abroad to-night." "Thou'rt wrang, Mr. Geoffrey," answered the game- keeper. " It's Thursday night he comes. Black Jim as broke thy head for thee is coming with t' quarrymen to poach t' covers. Got the office from yan with a grudge against t' gang, an' Captain Franklin, who's layin' for him, sends his compliments, thinkin' as maybe thee would like f fun." Thurston rarely forgot either an injury or a friend, and, the preceding October, when tripping, he fell help- less, Black Jim twice, with murderous intent, had brought a gun-butt down upon his unprotected skull. Excitement was at all times as wine to him, so, promis- ing to be at the rendezvous, he rode homeward faster than before, with a sense of anticipation which helped to dull the edge of his care. CHAPTER II A DISILLUSION" It was a clear cold night when Geoffrey Thurston met Captain Franklin, who held certain sporting rights in the vicinity, at the place agreed upon. The captain had brought with him several amateur assistants and stable- hands besides two stalwart keepers. Greeting Thurston lie said : " Very good of you to help me ! Our local constable is either afraid or powerless, and I must accordingly allow Black Jim's rascals to sweep my covers or take the law into my own hands. It is the pheasants he is after now, and he'll start early so as to get his plunder off from the junction by the night mail, and because the moon rises soon. We had better divide, and you might come with Evans and me to the beeches while the others search the fir spinney." Geoffrey, assenting, followed the officer across a dew- damped meadow and up a winding lane hung with gossa- mer-decked briars, until the party halted, ankle-deep among withered leaves, in a dry ditch just outside the wood. There were reasons why each detail of all that happened on that eventful night should Impress itself upon Geoffrey's memory, and, long afterwards, when wan- dering far out in the shadow of limitless forests or the chill of eternal snow, he could recall every incident. Leaves that made crimson glories by day still clung low down about the wide-girthed trunks beyond the straggling hedge of ancient thorns, but the higher branches i nakedly against faintly luminous sky. Spruce firs formed clumps of solid blackness, and here and there a delicate tracery of birch boughs filled gaps against the sky-lino between. The meadows behind him were silent and 19 A DISILLUSION 13 empty, streaked with belts of spectral mist, and, because it was not very late, he could see a red glimmer of light in the windows of Barrow Hall. But if the grass told no story it was otherwise with the wood, for Geoffrey could hear the rabbits thumping in their burrows among the roots of the thorn. Twice a cock-pheasant uttered a drowsy, raucous crow, and there was a blundering of unseen feathery bodies among the spruce, while, when this ceased, he heard a water-hen flutter with feet splashing across a hidden pool. Then heavy stillness followed, intensified by the clamor of a beck which came foaming down the side of a fell until, clatter- ing loudly, wood-pigeons, neither asleep nor wholly awake, drove out against the sky, wheeled and fell clumsily into the wood again. All this was a plain warning, and keeper Evans nodded agreement when Captain Franklin said: " There's somebody here, and, in order not to miss him, we'll divide our forces once more. If you'll go in by the Hall footpath, Thurston, and whistle on sight of anything suspicious, I'd be much obliged to you." A few minutes later Thurston halted on the topmost step of the lofty stile by which a footpath from the Hall entered the wood. Looking back across misty grass land and swelling ridges of heather, he could see a faint brightness behind the eastern rim of the moor; but, when he stepped down, it was very dark among the serried tree- trunks. The slender birches had faded utterly, the stately beeches resembled dim ghosts of trees and only the spruces retained, imperfectly, their shape and form. Thurston was country bred, and, lifting high his feet to clear bramble trailer and fallen twig, he walked by feeling in- stead of sight. The beck moaned a little more loudly, and there was a heavy astringent odor of damp earth and decaying leaves. When beast and bird were still again it seemed as if Nature, worn out by the productive effort of summer, were sinking under solemn silence into her winter sleep. 14 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY The watcher knew the wood was a large one and unlaw- ful visitants might well be hidden towards its farther end. He stood still at intervals, concentrating all his powers to listen, but his ears told him nothing until at last there was a rustle somewhere ahead. Puzzled by the sound, which reminded him of something curiously out of place in the lonely wood, he instantly sank down behind an ash tree. The sound certainly was not made by withered bracken or bramble leaves, and had nothing to do with the stealthy fall of a poacher's heavy boot. It came again more clearly, and Thurston was almost sure that it was the rustle of a woven fabric, such as a woman's dress. To confirm this opinion a soft laugh followed. He rose, deciding it could only be some assignation with a maid from the Hall, and no business of his. He had turned to retreat when he noticed the eastern side of a silver fir reflect a faint shim- mer. Glancing along the beam of light that filtered through a fantastic fretwork of delicate birch twigs arch- ing a drive, he saw a broad, bright disk hanging low- above the edge of the moor. It struck him that perhaps the poachers had used the girl to coax information out of a young groom or keeper, and that she was now warn- ing them. So he waited, debating, because he was a rudely chivalrous person, how he might secure the girl's compan- ion without involving the girl's disgrace. Again a laugh rose from beyond a thicket. Then he heard the voice of a man. Geoffrey was puzzled, for the laugh was musical, unlike a rustic giggle ; and, though the calling of the beck partly drowned it, the man's voice did not resemble that of a laborer. Thurston moved again, wondering whether it was not some affair of Leslie's from the Hall, and whether he ought not to slip away after all. The birch boughs sighed a little, there was a fluttering down of withered leaves, and he remained undecided, gripping his stout oak cudgel by the middle. Then the hot blood pulsed fiercely A DISILLUSION 15 through every artery, for the voice rose once more, harsh and clear this time, with almost a threat in the tone, and there was no possibility of doubting that the speaker was Leslie. " This cannot continue, Millicent," the voice said. " It has gone on too long, and I will not be trifled with. You cannot have both of us, and my patience is exhausted. Leave the fool to his folly." Geoffrey raised the cudgel and dropped it to his side. Turning suddenly cold, he remained for a second or two almost without power of thought or motion. The dis- illusion was cruel. The woman's light answer filled him with returning fury and he hurled himself at a thicket from which, amid a crash of branches, he reeled out into the sight of the speakers. The moon was well clear of the moor now, and silver light and inky shadow checkered the mosses of the drive. With a little scream of terror Millicent sprang apart from her companion's side and stood for a space staring at the man who had appeared out of the rent-down under- growth. The pale light beat upon Geoffrey's face, show- ing it was white with anger. Looking from Geoffrey, the girl glanced towards Leslie, who waited in the partial shadow of a hazel bush. Even had he desired to escape, which was possible, the bush would have cut off his re- treat. Geoffrey turned fiercely from one to the other. The woman, who stood with one hand on a birch branch, was evidently struggling to regain her courage. Her lips were twitching and her pale blue eyes were very wide open. The man was shrinking back as far as possible in a man- ner which suggested physical fear; he had heard the dalesfolk say a savage devil, easily aroused, lurked in all the Thurstons, and the one before him looked distinctly dangerous just then. Leslie was weak in limb as well as moral fiber, and it was Geoffrey who broke the painful 6ilence. 16 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY " What are you doing here at such an hour with this man, Millicent?" he asked sternly. "No answer! It appears that some explanation is certainly due to me — ■ and I mean to force it out of one of you." Millicent, saying nothing, gazed at her companion, as if conjuring him to speak plainly and to end an intoler- able position. Geoffrey read her meaning, even though Leslie, who glanced longingly over his shoulder down the drive, refused to do so. Because there was spirit in her, and she had recovered from the first shock of surprise, Millicent ground one little heel into the mosses with a gesture of disgusf and anger when the man made answer: " I resent your attitude and question. We came out to see the moon rise on the moor, and found the night breeze nipping." Geoffrey laughed harshly before he repeated : " You found the breeze nipping! There is scarcely an air astir. And you understand the relations existing between Miss Austin and me? I want a better reason. Millicent, you, at least, are not a coward — dare you give it me ? " " I challenge your right to demand an account of my actions," said the girl. With an evident effort to defy Thurston, she added, after a pause, " But the explanation must have come sooner or later, and you shall have it now. I have grown — perhaps the brutal truth is best — tired of you and your folly. You would sacrifice my future to your fantastic pride — and this man would give up every- thing for me." The first heat of Geoffrey's passion was past, and he was now coldly savage because of the woman's treachery. " I in hiding his conscience and honor, but not his per- sonal safety!" he supplemented contemptuously. "Mil- licent, one could almost admire you." Turning to Leslie he asked: "But are you struck dumb that you let the woman speak? This was my promised wife to whom you haw been making love, though, for delicacy would be superfluous, it is evident that she has not discouraged A DISILLUSION 17 yon. Until three days ago I could have trusted my life to her. Now, I presume, she has pledged herself to you ? " " Yes," answered Leslie, recovering his equanimity as his fears grew less oppressive. He began to excuse him- self but Geoffrey cut him short with a gesture. " Then, even if I desired to make them, my protests would be useless," said Geoffrey. " I am at least grateful for your frankness, Millicent ; it prevented me from wring- ing the truth from your somewhat abject lover. Had you told me honestly, when this man first spoke to you, that you had grown tired of me, I would have released you, and I would have tried to wish you well. Now I can only say, that at least you know the worst of each other — and there will be less disappointment when, stripped of either mutual or self respect, you begin life together. But I was forgetting that Franklin's keepers are search- ing the wood. Some of them might talk. Go at once by the Hall path, as softly as you can." The man and the girl were plainly glad to hurry away, and Geoffrey waited until the sound of their footsteps became scarcely audible before he heeded a faint rustling which indicated that somebody with a knowledge of wood- craft was forcing a passage through the undergrowth. He broke a dry twig at intervals as he walked slowly for a little distance. Then he dropped on hands and knees to cross a strip of open sward at an angle to his previous course, and lay still in the black shadow of a spruce. It was evident that somebody was following his trail, and the pursuer, passing his hiding-place, followed it straight on. Geoffrey's was a curious character, and the very original cure for a disappointment in love, that of baffling a game watcher while his faithless mistress escaped, brought him relief; it left no time for reflection. Presently he dashed across a bare strip of velvet mosses and rabbit-cropped turf, slipped between the roots of the hedge, and, running silently beneath it, halted several score yards away face to face with the astonished keeper. 18 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY "Weel, I'm clanged; this clean beats me," gasped that worthy. " Hello, behind there. It's only Mr. Geoffrey, sir. Didst see Black Jim slip out this way, or hear a scream a laal while gone by ? " " I saw no one," answered Geoffrey, " but I heard the scream. It was not unlike a hare squealing in a snare. You and I must have been stalking each other, Evans, and Black Jim can't be here." The rest came up as they spoke, and Captain Frank- lin said, " You seem badly disappointed at missing your old enemy, Thurston. I never saw you look so savage. I expect Black Jim has tricked us, after all." " I've had several troubles lately, and don't find much amusement in hunting poachers who aren't there," said Geoffrey. " You will excuse me from going back with you." He departed across the meadows, at a swinging pace, and the keeper, who stared after him, commented : " Something gradely wrang with Mr. Geoffrey to-night. They're an ill folk to counter yon, and it's maybe as well for Black Jim as Mr. Geoffrey didn't get hold on him." Geoffrey saw no more of Millicent, but once he visited her younger sister, a gentle invalid, who, because of the friendship which had long existed between them, said : " You must try to believe I mean it in kindness when" I say that I am not wholly sorry, Geoffrey. You and Millicent would never have gotten on well together, and while I wish the awakening could have happened in a more creditable way, you will realize — when some- body else makes you happy — that all has been for the best." " That day will be long in coming," declared the man, grimly, and the sick girl laid a thin white hand on his hard one as she answered him. " It is not a flattering speech, and you must not lose faith in all of us," the invalid went on. "Lying still here, helpless, I have often thought about both of you, * A DISILLUSION 19 and I feel that you have done well in choosing a new life in a new country. When you go out, Geoffrey, you will take my fervent wishes for your welfare with you." Janet Austin was frail and worn by pain. Her pale face flushed a little as the man suddenly stooped and touched her forehead with his lips. " God bless you for your kindly heart," he said. " A ruined man has very few friends, and many acquaintances are waiting to convince him that his downfall is the re- sult of his own folly, but " — and he straightened his wiry frame, while his eyes glinted — "they have not seen the end, and even if beaten, there is satisfaction in a stub- born, single-handed struggle." Janet Austin, perhaps thinking of her own helpless- ness, sighed as she answered: " I do not think you will be beaten, Geoffrey, but if you will take advice from me, remember that over-confidence in your powers and the pride that goes with it may cost you many a minor victory. Good-by, and good luck, Geoffrey. You will remember me." That afternoon, while Thurston was in the midst of preparations to leave his native land, the mining engineer called upon him with a provincial newspaper in his hand. " I suppose this is your answer," he remarked, laying his finger on a paragraph. " Mr. G. Thurston, who has, in the face of many diffi- culties, attempted to exploit the copper vein in Crosbie Fell, has been compelled to close the mine," the printed lines ran. " We understand he came upon an unexpected break in the strata, coupled with a subsidence which practically precludes the possibility of following the lost lead with any hope of commercial success. He has, there- fore, placed his affairs in the hands of Messrs. Lonsdale & Eouth, solicitors, and, we understand, intends emigrat- ing. His many friends and former employees wish him success." 20 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY " Yes," Geoffrey answered dryly, " I sent them the in- formation, also a copy to London financial papers. Con- sidering the interest displayed just now in British mines, they should insert a paragraph. I've staked down youfl backers' game in return for your threats, and you may be thankful you have come off so easily. Your check is ready. It is the last you will ever get from me." The expert smiled almost good-naturedly. "You needn't have taken so much trouble, Thurston," he said. " The exploitation of your rabbit burrow would only have been another drop in the bucket to my correspondents, and it's almost a pity we can't be friends, for, with some training, your sledge-hammer style would make its mark in the ring." " Thanks ! " replied Geoffrey. " I'm not fishing for compliments, and it's probably no use explaining my motives — you wouldn't understand them. Still, in future, don't set down every man commonly honest as an uncommon fool. If I ever had much money, which is hardly likely, I should fight extremely shy of any in- vestments recommended by your friends ! " CHAPTER III Geoffrey's first contract It was springtime among the mountains which, glisten- ing coldly white with mantles of eternal snow, towered above the deep-sunk valley, when, one morning, Geoffrey Thurston limped painfully out of a redwood forest of British Columbia. The boom of a hidden river set the pine sprays quivering. A blue grouse was drumming deliriously on the top of a stately fir, and the morning sun drew clean, healing odors from balsam and cedar. The scene was characteristic of what is now the grand- est and wildest, as it will some day be the richest, province of the Canadian Dominion. The serene majesty of snow- clad heights and the grandeur of vast shadowy aisles, with groined roofs of red branches and mighty colonnades of living trunks, were partly lost upon the traveler who, most of the preceding night, had trudged wearily over rough railroad ballast. He had acquired Colonial ex- perience of the hardest kind by working through the winter in an Ontario logging camp, which is a rough school. An hour earlier the man, to visit whom Thurston had undertaken an eight-league journey, had laughed in his face when he offered to drain a lake which flooded his ranch. Saying nothing, but looking grimmer than ever, Geoffrey had continued his weary journey in search of sustenance. He frowned as he Hung himself down be- neath a fir, for, shimmering like polished steel between the giant trees, the glint of water caught his eye, and the blue wood smoke curling over the house on a distant slope suggested the usual plentiful Colonial breakfast. Although Geoffrey's male forbears had been reckless 21 22 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY men, his mother had transmitted him a strain of north- country canniness. The remnant of his poor possessions, converted into currency, lay in a Canadian bank to pro- vide working capital and, finding no scope for his mental abilities, he had wandered here and there endeavoring to sell the strength of his body for daily bread. Sometimes he had been successful, more often he had failed, but al- ways, when he would accept it, the kindly bush settlers gave him freely of their best. As he basked in the warmth and brightness, he took from his pocket a few cents' worth of crackers. When he had eaten, his face relaxed, for the love of wild nature was born in him, and the glorious freshness of the spring was free to the poorest as well as to the richest. He stooped to drink at a glacier-fed rill, and then producing a corn-cob pipe, sighed on finding that only the tin label remained of his cake of tobacco. Through the shadow of the firs two young women watched him with curiosity. The man looked worn and weary, his jean jacket was old and torn, and an essential portion of one boot was missing. The stranger's face had been almost blackened by the snow-reflected glare of the clear winter sun, and yet both girls decided that he was hardly a representative specimen of the wandering fraternity of tramps. Helen Savine was slender, tall, and dark. Though arrayed in a plain dress of light fabric, she carried her- self with a dignity befitting the daughter of the famous engineering contractor, Julius Savine, and a descendant, through her mother, from Seigneurs of ancient French descent who had ruled in patriarchal fashion in ohl- world Quebec. Jean Graham, whose father owned the anch on the slope behind them, was ruddy in face, with olidity of frame that betokened Caledonian extraction, and true trans-Atlantic directness of speech. ' IN' must be hungry," whispered Jean. "Quite good- looking, too, and it's queer he sits there munching those GEOFFREY'S FIRST CONTRACT 23 crackers, instead of walking straight up and striking us for a meal. I don't like to see a good-looking man hungry," she added, reflectively. " We will go down and speak to him," said Helen, and the suggestion that she should interview a wandering vagrant did not seem out of place in that country where men from many different walks of life turned their often ill-fitted hands to the rudest labor that promised them a livelihood. In any case, Helen possessed a somewhat im- perious will, which was supplemented by a grace of man- ner which made whatever she did appear right. Geoffrey, looking round at the sound of approaching steps, stood suddenly upright, thrusting the more dilapi- dated boot behind the other, and wondering with what purpose the two girls had sought him. One he recognized as a type common enough throughout the Dominion — kindly, shrewd, somewhat hard-featured and caustic in speech; but the other, who looked down on him with thinly-veiled pity, more resembled the women of birth and education whom he had seen in England. ' You are a stranger to this district. Looking for work, perhaps?" said Helen Savine. Geoffrey lifted his wide and battered felt hat as he answered, " I am." " There is work here," announced Helen. " I can offer you a dollar now — if you would care to earn it. Yonder rock, which I believe is a loose boulder, obstructs our wagon trail. If you are willing to remove it and will follow us to the ranch, you will find suitable tools." Geoffrey flushed a little under his tan. When seeking work he had grown used to being sworn at by foremen with Protectionist tendencies, but it galled him to be offered a woman's charity, and the words " If you would care to earn it," left a sting. Nevertheless, he reflected that any superfluous sensitiveness would be distinctly out of place in one of his position, and, considering the wages paid in that country, the man who rolled the boulder clear would well earn his dollar. Accordingly he an- M THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY swered : " I should be glad to remove the rock, if I can." The two young women turned back towards the ranch, and Thurston followed respectfully, as far as possible in the rear, that they might not observe the condition of his attire. This was an entirely superfluous precaution, for Helen's keen eyes had noticed. Reaching the ranch, Geoffrey possessed himself of a grub-hoe, which is a pick with an adz-shaped blade with an ax and shovel; also he returned with the girls to the boulder. For an hour or two he toiled hard, grubbing out hundredweights of soil and gravel from round about the rock. Then cutting a young fir he inserted the butt of it as a lever, and spent another thirty minutes focusing his full strength on the opposite end. The rock, how- ever, refused to move an inch, and, because a few crackers are not much for a hungry man to work on after an all- night march, Thurston became conscious that he had a headache and a distressful stitch in his side. Still, being obstinate and filled with an unreasoning desire to prove his trustworthiness to his fair employer, he continued doggedly, and after another hour's digging found the stone still immovable. Then it happened that while, with the perspiration dripping from him, he tugged at the 1' vcr, the rancher who had rebuffed him that morning, drew rein close beside. " Hello ! What are you after now ? You're messing all this trail up if you're doing nothing else," he declared in ;i tone of challenge. '• If you have come here to amuse yourself at my ex- c, take care. Fm not in the mood for baiting," an- swered Thurston, who still smarted under the recollec- tion of the summary manner in which the speaker had rejected his proffered services. " There are, however, folks in this country more willing to give a stranger a chance than you, and I've taken a contract to remove that rock for a dollar. Now, if you are satisfied, ride on your way." GEOFFREY'S FIRST CONTRACT 25 " Then you've made a blame bad bargain," commented the rancher, with unruffled good humor. " I was figur- ing that I might help you. I thought you were a hobo after my .chickens, or trying to bluff me into a free meal this morning. If you'd asked straight for it, I'd have given it you." Geoffrev hesitated, divided between an inclination to laugh or to assault the rancher, who perhaps guessed his thoughts, for, dismounting, he said: " If you're so mighty thin-skinned what are you doing here? Why don't you British dukes stop right back in 3'our own country where folks touch their hats to you? Let me on to that lever." For at least twenty minutes, the two men tugged and panted. Then Bransome, the rancher, said: " The blame thing's either part of the out-crop or wedged fast there forever, and I've no more time to spare. Say, Graham's a hard man, and has been playing it low on you. What's the matter with turning his contract up and going over to fill oat bags for me ? " " Thanks, but having given my word to move that rock, I'm going to stay here until I do it," answered Geoffrey ; and Bransome, nodding to him, rode on towards the ranch. When he reached it Bransome said to Jean Graham in the hearing of Miss Savine : " The old man has taken in yonder guileless stranger who has put two good dollars' worth of work into that job already, and the rock's rather faster than it was be- fore." " Did he say Mr. Graham hired him ? " asked Helen, and she drew her own inference when Bransome answered : " Why, no ! I put it that way, and he didn't contradict me." It was afternoon when Thurston realized at last that even considerable faith in one's self is not sufficient, un? aided, to move huge boulders. He felt faint and hungry, but the pride of the Insular Briton restrained him from. VG THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY begging for a meal. His own dislike to acknowledge defeat also prompted him to decide that where weary iiiuscles failed, mechanical power might succeed, and he determined to tramp back a league to the settlement in "the hope of perhaps obtaining a drill and some giant powder on credit. He had not studied mining theo- retically as well as in a costly practical school for nothing. It was a rough trail to the settlement. The red dust lay thick upon it and the afternoon sun was hot. When at last, powdered all over with dust and very weary, Thurston came in sight of the little wooden store, he noticed Bransome's horse fastened outside it. He did not see the rancher, who sat on an empty box behind a sugar hogshead inside the counter. " I want two sticks of giant powder, a fathom or two of fuse, and several detonators," said Geoffrey as indiffer- ently as he could. " I have only two bits at present to pay for them, but if they don't come to more than a dollar you shall have the rest to-morrow. I also want to bor- row a drill." The storekeeper was used to giving much longer credit than Geoffrey wanted, but the glance he cast at the appli- cant was not reassuring, and it is possible he might have refused his request, but that, unseen by Thurston, Bran- some signaled to him from behind the barrel. u We don't trade that way with strangers generally," the storekeeper answered. " Still, if you want them special, and will pay me what they're worth to-morrow, I'll oblige you, and even lend you a set of drills. But you'll come back sure, and not lose any of them drills ? " lie added dubiously. " I haven't come here to rob you. It's a business deal, and not a favor I'm asking," asserted Geoffrey grimly, and when he withdrew the storekeeper observed : " Why can't you do your own charity, Bransome, in- stead of taxing me? That's the crank who wanted t. Thomas Savine sat opposite him, between her husband and the host, and Helen found certain suspicions con- firmed when Savine referred to the crushing of the strike. Previouslv, he had given his daughter a brief account of it. "It was daringly done," said Helen, "but I wonder, Mr. Thurston, if vmi and others who hold the power ever consider the opposite Bide of the question. It may be that those men, whose task is evidently highly dangerous, have wives and children depending upon them, and a few extra A REST BY THE WAY 81 dollars, earned hardly enough, no douht, might mean so much to them." " I am afraid I don't always do so," answered Geoffrey. " I have toiled tolerably hard as a workman myself. If any employe should consider that he was underpaid for the risk he ran, and should say so civilly, I should listen to him. On the other hand, if any combination strove by unfair means to coerce me, I should spare no effort to crush it ! " Thurston generally was too much in earnest to make a pleasant dinner-table conversationalist. As he spoke, he shut one big brown hand. It was a trifling action, and he was, perhaps, unconscious of it, but Helen, who noticed the flicker in his eyes and the vindictive tightening of the hard fingers, shrank from him instinctively. " Is that not a cruel plan of action, and is there no room for a gentler policy in your profession? Must the weak always be trampled out of existence ? " she replied, with a slight trace of indignation. Thurston turned towards her with a puzzled expres- sion. Julius Savine smiled, but his sister-in-law, who had remained silent, but not unobservant, broke in : " You believe in the hereditary transmission of character, Mr. Thurston ? " " I think most people do to some extent," answered Geoffrey. " But why do you ask me ? " " It's quite simple," said Mrs. Savine, smiling. " Did my husband tell you that when we were in England, we were held up by a storm there one night in your ancestral home? There was a man there who ought to belong to the feudal ages. He was called Musker, and he told us quaint stories about some of you. I fancy Geoffrey, who robbed the king's dragoons, must have looked just like you when you shut your fingers so, a few minutes ago." " I am a little surprised," Geoffrey returned with a flush rising in his cheeks. " Musker used to talk a great deal of romantic nonsense. Crosbie Ghyll is no longer 82 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY mine. I hope you passed a pleasant night there." Mrs. Savine became eloquent concerning the historic interest of the ancient house and her brother-in-law, who appeared interested, observed. " So far, you have not told me about that particular adventure." Again the incident was unfortunate for Geoffrey, be- cause Helen, who had no great respect for her aunt's perceptions, decided that if the similitude had struck even that lady, she was right in her own estimation of Thurs- ton's character. " We heard of several instances of reckless daring, and we Colonials consider all the historic romance of the land we sprang from belongs to us as well as you," Mts. Savine said. " So, if it is not an intrusion, may I ask if any of those border warriors were remarkable for deeds of self-abnegation or charity?" "I am afraid not," admitted Geoffrey, rather grimly. " Xeither did any of them ever do much towards the making of history. All of them were generally too busy protecting their property or seizing that of their neigh- bors! But, at least, when they fought, they seem to have fought for the losing side, and, according to tradition, paid for it dearly. However, to change the subject, is it fair to hold any man responsible for his ancestors' short- comings? They have gone back to the dust long ago, and it is the present that concerns us." "Still, can anybody avoid the results of those short- comings or virtues?" persisted Helen, and her father said: " I hardly think so. There is an instance beside you, Mr. Thurston. Miss Savine's grandfather ruled in paternally feudal fashion over a few dozen superstitious habitants way back in old-world Quebec, as his folks had done since the hist French colonization. That explains my daughter's views on social matters and her weakness for playing the somewhat autocratic Lady Bountiful. A REST BY THE WAY 83 The Seigneurs were benevolent village despots with very quaint ways." Savine spoke lightly, and one person only noticed that the face of his daughter was slightly less pale in coloring than before, but that one afterwards remembered her father's words and took them as a clue to the woman's character. He discovered also that Helen Savine was both generous and benevolent, but that she loved to rule, and to rule somewhat autocratically. The first day at the Savine villa passed like a pleasant dream to the man who had toiled for a bare living in the shadowy forests or knelt all day among hot rocks to hold the weary drill with bleeding fingers. Mr. Savine grew more and more interested in Geoffrey, who, during the second day, made great advances in the estimation of Mrs. Thomas Savine. Bicycles were not so common a woman's possession in Canada, or elsewhere, then. In fact, there were few roads in British Columbia fit to propel one on. An American friend had sent Miss Savine a wheel which, after a few journeys over a corduroy road, groaned most distressfully whenever she mounted it. Helen desired to ride in to the railroad, but the gaudy machine complained even more than usual, and when at last one of its wheels declined to revolve, Julius Savine called Geoffrey's attention to it. " If you are anxious for mild excitement, and want to earn my daughter's gratitude, you might tackle that con- founded thing, Mr. Thurston," he said. "The local blacksmith shakes his head over it, and sent it back the • last time worse than ever, with several necessary portions missing. After running manv kinds of machines in my time, I'm willing to own that this particular specimen defies me." Thurston had stripped and fitted various intricate mi- ning appliances, but he had never struggled with a bicycle. So, when Helen accepted his offer of assistance, he wheeled the machine out upon the lawn and proceeded light- 84 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY hearteolly to dismantle it, while the Savine brothers lounged in cane chairs, encouraging him over their cigars. The dismantling was comparatively simple, but when the time for reassembling came, Thurston, who found that certain cups could not by any legitimate means be in- duced to screw home into their places, was perforce obliged to rest the machine upon two chairs and wriggle underneath it, where he reclined upon his back with grimy oil dripping upon his forehead. Red in the face, he crawled out to breathe at intervals, and Helen made stern efforts to conceal her mingled alarm and merriment, when Thomas Savine said: " Will you take long odds, Thurston, that you never make that invention of his Satanic Majesty run straight again ? " Mrs. Savine cautioned the operator about sunstroke and apoplex)'. When Thomas Savine caught Helen's eye, both laughed outright, and Geoffrey, mistaking the reason, felt hurt; he determined to conquer the bicycle or remain beneath it all night. When at last he succeeded in put- ting the various parts together and straightened his ach- ing back, he hoped that he did not look so disgusted, grimy and savage as he undoubtedly felt. " You must really let it alone," said Helen. " The sun is very hot, and perhaps, you might be more successful after luncheon. I have noticed that when mending bicvclcs a rest and refreshment sometimes prove benefi- cial." " That's so ! " agreed Thomas Savine. " Young Harry was wont to tackle it on just those lines. He used up several of my best Cubanos and a bottle of claret each time, before he had finished; and then I was never con- vinced that the thing went any better." " You must beware of ruining your health," interposed Mrs. Savine. "Mending bicycles frequently leads to an accumulation of malevolent humors. Did I interrupt you, Mr. Thurston?" A REST BY THE WAY 85 " I was only going to say that it is nearly finished, and that I should not like to be vanquished by an affair of this kind," said Geoffrey with empahsis. "Would it hurt the machine if I stood it upon its head, Miss Savine ? " " Oh, no, and I am so grateful," Helen answered assur- ingly, noticing guiltily that there were oil and red dust, besides many somber smears, upon the operators face and jacket, while the skin was missing from several of his knuckles. It was done at last, and Geoffrey sighed, while the rest of the party expressed surprise as well as admira- tion when the wheels revolved freely without click or groan. Julius Savine nodded, with more than casual ap- proval, and Helen was gracious with her thanks. " You look quite faint," observed Mrs. Savine. " It was the hot sun on your forehead, and the mental excite- ment. Such things are often followed by dangerous con- sequences, and you must take a dose of my elixir. Helen, dear, you know where to find the bottle." Julius Savine was guilty of a slight gesture of im- patience. His brother laughed, while Helen seemed anxious to slip away. Geoffrey answered : " I hardly think one should get very mentally excited over a bicycle. I feel perfectly well, and only somewhat greasy." " That is just one of the symptoms. Yes, you have hit it — greasy feeling ! " broke in the amateur dispenser, who rarely relaxed her efforts until she had run down her victim. " Helen, why don't vou hunt round for that bottle?" " I mean greasy externally," explained Geoffrey in desperation, and again Thomas Savine chuckled, while Helen, who ground one little boot-heel into the grasses, deliberately turned away. Mrs. Savine, however, cheer- fully departed to find the bottle, and soon returned with it and a wine glass. She filled the glass with an inky fluid which smelt unpleasant, and said to Geoffrey : 86 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY " You will be distinctly better the moment you have taken this ! " Geoffrey took the goblet, walked apart a few paces, and, making a wry face, heroically swallowed the bitter draught, after which Mrs. Savine, who beamed upon him, said: " You feel quite differently, don't you ? " " Yes ! " asserted Geoffrey, truthfully, longing to add that he had felt perfectly well before and had now to make violent efforts to overcome his nausea. His heroism had its reward, however, for when Helen returned from her wheel ride, she said : " 1 was really ashamed when my aunt insisted on doctoring you, but you must take it as a compliment, because she only prescribes fur the people she takes a fancy to. I hope the dose was not particularly nasty?" " Sorry for you, Thurston, from experience ! " cried Thomas Savine. " When I see that bottle, I just vacate the locality. The taste isn't the worst of it by a long way." That night Julius Savine called Geoffrey into his study, and, spreading a roll of plans before him, offered terms, which were gladly accepted, for the construction of por- tions of several works. Savine said : " I won't worry much about references. Your work speaks for itself, and the Roads and Trails surveyor has been talking about you. I'll take you, as you'll have to take me, on trust. I keep my eye on rising young men, and I have been watching you. Besides, the man who could master an obstinate bicycle the first time he wrestled with one must have some sense of his own, and it isn't everybody who would have swallowed that physic." " I could not well avoid doing so," said Geoffrey, with a rueful smile. " I feel I owe you an apology, but it's my sister-in- Liw's one weakness, and you have won her favor for the rest of your natural life," Savine returned. "You have A REST BY THE WAY 87 had several distinguished fellow-sufferers, including provincial representatives and railroad directors, for to my horror she physicked a very famous one the last time he came. He did not suffer with your equanimity. In fact, he was almost uncivil, and said to me, ' If the secre- tary hadn't sent off your trestle contract, I should urge the board to reconsider it. Did you ask me here that your relatives might poison me, Savine?'" Geoffrey laughed, and his host added: " I want to talk over a good many details with you, and dare say you deserve a holiday — I know I do — so I shall retain you here for a week, at least. I take your consent for granted; it's really necessary." CHAPTEE IX GEOFFREY STANDS FIRM Geoffrey Thurston possessed a fine constitution, and, in spite of Mrs. Savine's treatment and her husband's pre- dictions, rose refreshed and vigorous on the morning that followed his struggle with the bicycle. It was a glorious morning, and when breakfast was over he enjoyed the unusual luxury of lounging under the shadow of a cedar on the lawn, where he breathed in the cool breeze which rippled the sparkling straits. Hitherto, he had risen with the sun to begin a day of toil and anxiety and this brief glimpse of a life of ease, with the pleasures of congenial companionship, was as an oasis in the desert to him. " A few days will be as much as is good for me," he told himself with a sigh. " In the meantime hard work and short commons are considerably more appropriate, but I shall win the right to all these things some day, if my strength holds out." His forehead wrinkled, his eyes contracted, and he stared straight before him, seeing neither the luminous green of the maples nor the whispering cedars, but far off in the misty future a golden possibility, which, if well worth winning, must be painfully earned. His reverie was broken suddenly. " Are your thoughts very serious this morning, Mr. Thurston?" a clear voice inquired, and the most alluring of the visions he had conjured up stood before him, losing nothing by the translation into material flesh. Helen ►Savine had halted under the cedar. In soft clinging draperies of white and cream, she was a charming reality. "I'm afraid they were," Geoffrey answered, and Helen laughed musically. 88 GEOFFREY STANDS FIRM 89 " One would fancy that you took life too much in earnest," she said. " It is fortunately impossible either to work or to pile up money forever, and a holiday is good for everybody. I am going down to White Eock Cove to see if my marine garden is as beautiful as it used to be. Would you care to inspect it and carry this basket for me?" Thurston showed his pleasure almost too openly. They chatted lightly on many subjects as they walked to- gether, knee-deep, at times, among scarlet wine-berries, and the delicate green and ebony of maidenhair fern. The scents and essence of summer hung heavy in the air. Shafts of golden sunlight, piercing the somber canopy of the forest isles, touched, and, it seemed to Geoffrey, etherealized, his companion. The completeness of his enjoyment troubled the man, and presently he lapsed into silence. All this appeared too good, too pleasant, he feared, to last. " Do you know that you have not answered my last question, nor spoken a word for the last ten minutes ? " inquired Helen with a smile, at length. " Have these woods no charm for you, or are you regretting the cigar- box beneath the cedar ? " Geoffrey turned towards her, and there was a momen- tary flash in his eyes as he answered : " You must forgive me. Keen enjoyment often blunts the edge of speech, and I was wishing that this walk through the cool, green stillness might last forever." Afraid that he might have said too much, he ceased speaking abruptly, and then, after the fashion of one un- skilled in tricks of speech, proceeded to remedy one blunder by committing another. " It reminds me of the evenings at Graham's ranch. There can surely be no sunsets in the world to equal those that flame along the snows of British Columbia, and you will remember how, together, we watched them burn and fade." 90 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY It was an unfortunate reference, for now and then Helen had recalled that period with misgivings. Cut off from all association with persons of congenial tastes, she had not only found the man's society interesting, but she had allowed herself to sink into an indefinite state of companionship with him. In the mountain solitude, such camaraderie had seemed perfectly natural, but it was im- possible under different circumstances. It was only on the last occasion that he had ever hinted at a continuance of this intimacy, but she had not forgotten the rash speech. Had the recollections been all upon her own side she might have permitted a partial renewal of the companionship, but she became forbidding at once when Geoffrey ventured to remind her of it. " Yes/' she said reflectively. " The sunsets were often impressive, but we are all of us unstable, and what pleases us at one time may well prove tiresome at another. If that experience were repeated I should very possibly grow sadly discontented at Graham's ranch." Geoffrey was not only shrewd enough to comprehend that, if Miss Savine unbent during a summer holiday in the wilderness, it did not follow that she would always do so, but he felt that he deserved the rebuke. He had, how- ever, learned patience in Canada, and was content to bide his time, so he answered good-humoredly that such a result might well be possible. They were silent until they halted where the hillside fell sharply to the verge of a cliff. Far down below Thurston could see the white pebbles shine through translucent water, and with pro- fessional instincts aroused, he dubiously surveyed the slope to the head of the crag. Julius Savine, or somebody under his orders, had con- structed a zig-zag pathway which wound down between small maples and clusters of wine-berries shimmering like blood-drops among their glossy leaves. In places the pathway was underpinned with timber against the side of an almost sheer descent, and he noticed that one could GEOFFREY STANDS FIRM 91 have dropped a vertical line from the fish-hawk, which hung poised a few feet outside one angle, into the water. They descended cautiously to the first sharp bend, and here Geoffrey turned around in advance of his companion. " Do you mind telling me how long it is since you or anybody else has used this path, Miss Savine?" he in- quired. "I came up this way last autumn, and think hardly any other person has used it since. But why do you ask ? " was the reply. " I fancied so ! " Geoffrey lapsed instinctively into his brusque, professional style of comment. " Poor system of underpinning, badly fixed yonder. I am afraid you must find some other way down to the beach this morn- ing." It was long since Helen had heard anybody apply the word " must " to herself. As Julius Savine's only daughter, most of her wishes had been immediately- gratified, while the men she met vied with one another in paying her homage. In addition to this, her father, in whose mechanical abilities she had supreme faith, had constructed that pathway especially for her pleasure. So for several reasons her pride took fire, and she answered coldly : " The path is perfectly safe. My father himself watched the greater portion of its building." " It was safe once, no doubt," answered Geoffrey, slightly puzzled as to how he had offended her, but still resolute. " The rains of last winter, however, have washed out much of the surface soil, leaving bare parts of the rock beneath, and the next angle yonder is positively dangerous. Can we not go around ? " " Only by the head of the valley, two miles away at least," Helen's tone remained the reverse of cordial. * I have climbed both in the Selkirk's and the Coast Range, and to anyone with a clear head, even in the most slippery places, there cannot be any real danger ! " " I regret that I cannot agree with you. I devoutly 92 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY wish I could," said Geoffrey, uneasily. " No ! you must please go no further, Miss Savine." The girl's eyes glittered resentfully. A flush crept into the center of either cheek as she walked towards him. Though he did not intend it, there was perhaps too strong a suggestion of command in his attitude, and when Helen came abreast of him, he laid a hand restrainingly upon her arm. She shook it off, not with ill-humored petulance, for Helen was never ungraceful nor un- dignified, but with a disdain that hurt the man far more than anger. Nevertheless, knowing that he was right, he was determined that she should run no risk. Letting his hand swing at his side, he walked a few paces before her, and then turned in a narrow portion of the path where two people could not pass abreast. " Please listen to me, Miss Savine," he began. " I am an engineer, and I can see that the bend yonder is danger- ous. I cannot, therefore, consent to allow you to venture upon it. How should I face your father if anything un- fortunate happened ? " " My father saw the path built," repeated Helen. " He also is an engineer, and is said to be one of the most skill- ful in the Dominion. I am not used to being thwarted for inadequate reasons. Let me pass." Geoffrey stood erect and immovable. " I am very sorry, Miss Savine, that, in this one instance, I cannot obey you," he said. There was an awkward silence, and while they looked at each other, Helen felt her breath come faster. Re- treating a few paces she seated herself upon a boulder, thus leaving the task of terminating an unpleasant posi- tion to Geoffrey, who was puzzled for a time. Finally, an inspiration dawned upon Thurston, who said : " Perhaps you would feci the disappointment less if I convinced you by ocular demonstration." Walking cautiously forward to the dangerous angle, he grasped a broken edge of the rock outcrop about which GEOFFREY STANDS FIRM 93 the path twisted, and pressed hard with both feet upon the edge of the narrow causeway. It was a hazardous experiment, and the result of it startling, for there was a crash and a rattle, and Geoffrey remained clinging to the rock, with one foot in a cranny, while a mass of earth and timber slid down the steep-pitched slope and disap- peared over the face of the crag. A hollow splashing rose suggestively from far beneath the rock. Helen, who had been too angry to notice the consideration for herself implied in the man's last speech, turned her eyes upon the ground and did not raise them until, after swinging himself carefully onto firmer soil, Geoffrey approached her. " I hope, after what you have seen, you will forgive me for preventing your descent," he said. " You used considerable violence, and I am still un- convinced," Helen declared, rising as she spoke. " In any case, you have at least made further progress im- possible, and we may as well retrace our steps. No; I do not wish to hear any more upon the subject. It is really not worth further discussion." They turned back together. When the ascent grew steeper, Geoffrey held out his hand. Instead of accepting the proffered assistance as she had done when they de- scended, Helen apparently failed to notice the hand, and the homeward journey was not pleasant to either of them. Helen did not parade her displeasure, but Geoffrey was sensible of it, and, never being a fluent speaker upon casual subjects, he was not successful in his conversational efforts. When at last they reached the villa, he shook his shoulders disgustedly as he recalled some of his inane remarks. " It was hardly a wonder she was silent. Heavens, what prompted me to drivel in that style?" he reflected. " It was cruelly unfortunate, but I could not let her risk her precious safety over that confounded path ! " At luncheon it happened that Mrs. Savine said: "I saw you going towards the White Rock Cove, Helen. 94 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY Very interesting place, isn't it, Mr. Thurston? But you brought none of that lovely weed back with you." " Did you notice how I had the path graded as you went down ? " asked Savine, and Thurston saw that Helen's eyes were fixed upon him. The expression of the eyes aroused his indignation because the glance was not a challenge, but a warning that whatever his answer might be, the result would be indifferent to her. He was hurt that she should suppose for a moment that he would profit by this opportunity. "We were not able to descend the whole way," he replied. " Last winter's rains have loosened the surface soil, and one angle of the path slipped bodily away. Very fortunately I was some distance in advance of Miss Savine, and there was not the slightest danger. Might I suggest socketed timbers? The occurrence reminds me of a curious accident to the railroad track in the Rockies." Helen did not glance at the speaker again, for Savine asked no awkward questions. But Thurston saw no more of her during the afternoon. That evening he sought Savine in his study. " You have all been very kind to me," he said. " In fact, so much so that I feel, if I stay any longer among you, I si i all never be content to rough it when I go back to the bush. This is only too pleasant, but, being a poor man with a living to earn, it would be more consistent if I recommenced my work. Which of the operations should I undertake first ? " Savine smiled on him whimsically, and answered with Western directness: " I don't know whether the Roads Surveyor was right or wrong when he said that you were not always over- civil. See here, Thurston, leaving all personal amenities out of the question, I'm inclined to figure that you will be of use to me, and the connection also will help you con- siderably. My paid representatives arc not always so energetic as they might be. So if you are tired of High GEOFFREY STANDS FIRM 95 Maples you can start in with the rock-cutting on the new wagon road. It is only a detail, but I want it finished, and, as the cars would bring you down in two hours' time, I'll expect you to put in the week-end here, talking over more important things with me." Thurston left the house next morning. He did not see Helen to say good-by to her, for she had ridden out into the forest before he departed from High Maples. Helen admitted to herself that she was interested in Thurston, the more so because he alone, of all the men whom she had met, had successfully resisted her will. But she shrank from him, and though convinced that his action in preventing her from going down the pathway had been justified, she could not quite forgive him. CHAPTER X savine's confidence Despite his employer's invitation Thurston did not re- turn to High Maples at the end of the week. The rock- cutting engrossed all his attention, and he was conscious that it might be desirable to allow Miss Savine's indigna- tion to cool. He had thought of her often since the day that she gave him the dollar, and, at first still smarting under the memory of another woman's treachery, had tried to analyze his feelings regarding her. The result was not very definite, though he decided that he had never really loved Millicent, and was very certain now that she had wasted little affection upon him. One evening at Graham's ranch when they had stood silently together under the early stars, he had become suddenly conscious of the all-important fact, that his life would be empty without Helen Savine, and that of all the women whom he had met she alone could guide and raise him towards a higher plane. It was characteristic of Geoffrey Thurston that the determination to win her in spite of every barrier of wealth and rank came with the revelation, and that, at the same time counting the cost, he realized that he must first bid boldly for a name and station, and with all patience bide his time. A more cold-blooded man might have abandoned the quest as hopeless at the first, and one more impulsive might have ruined his chances by rashness, but Geoffrey united the characteristics of the reckless Thurstons with his mother's cool North Country canninoss. It therefore happened that Savine, irritated by a jour- nalistic reference to the tardiness of that season's road- 96 SAVINE'S CONFIDENCE 97 making, went down to see how the work entrusted to Geoffrey was progressing. He was accompanied hy his daughter, who desired to visit the wife of a prosperous rancher. It was towards noon of a hot day when the} r alighted from their horses in the mouth of a gorge that wound inland from the margin of a lake. No breath of wind ruffled the steely surface of the lake. White boulder and somber fir branch slept motionless, reflected in the crystal depths of the water, and lines of great black cedars, that kept watch from the ridge above, stood mute beneath the sun. As they picked their path carefully through the debris littering an ugly rent in the rock, where perspiring men were toiling hard with pick and drill, they came upon Thurston before he was aware of them. Geoffrey stood with a heavy hammer in his hand critically surveying a somewhat seedy man who was just then offering his serv- ices. Savine, who had a sense of humor, was interested in the scene, and said to his daughter : " Thurston's busv. We'll just wait until he's through with that fel- low." Geoffrey, being ignorant of their presence, decided that the applicant, who said that he was an Englishman, and used to estimating quantities, would be of little service; but he seldom refused to assist a stranger in distress. " I do all the draughting and figuring work myself," he said. " However, if you are hard up you can earn two dollars a day wheeling broken rock until you find some- thing better." The man turned away, apparently not delighted at the prospect of wheeling rock, and Geoffrey faced about to greet the spectators. " I don't fancy you'll get much work out of that fel- low," observed Savine. " I did not expect to see you so soon, and am pleasantly surprised," said Geoffrey, who, warned by something in Helen's face, restrained the answer he was about to make. 98 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY " You will be tired after your rough ride, and it is very hot out here. If you will come into my office tent I can offer you some slight refreshment." Helen noticed every appointment of the double tent which was singularly neat and trim. Its flooring of packed twigs gave out a pleasant aromatic odor. The instruments scattered among the papers on the maple desk were silver-mounted. The tall, dusty man in toil- stained jean produced thin glasses, into which he poured mineral waters and California wine. A tin of English biscuits was passed with the cooling drinks. Thurston was a curious combination, she fancied, for, having seen him covered with the grime of hard toil she now beheld him in a new role — that of host. They chatted for half-an-hour, and then there was an interruption, for the young Englishman, who had grown tired of wheeling the barrow, stood outside the tent de- manding to see his employer. Geoffrey strode out into the sunshine. The stranger said that he had a backache, besides blisters on his hands, and that wheeling a heavy barrow did not agree with him. He added, with an easy assurance that drew a frown to the contractor's face, "It's a consider- able come-down for me to have to work hard at all, and I was told you were generally good to a distressed country- man. Can't you really give me anything easier?" " I try to be helpful to my countrymen when they're worth it," answered Geoffrey, dryly. " Would you care to hold a rock drill, or swing a sledge instead ? " " I hardly think so," he returned dubiously. " You see, I haven't been trained to manual labor, and I'm not so strong as you might think by looking at me." Geoffrey lost lii's temper. "The drill might blister your fingers, I dare say," he admitted. "I'm afraid you are too good for this rude country, and I have no use for yon. I could afford to be decent? Perhaps so, but I earn my money with con- SAVINE'S CONFIDENCE 99 siderably more effort than you seem willing to make. The cook will give you dinner with the other men to-day ; then you can resume your search for an easy billet. We have no room in this camp for idlers." Savine chuckled, but Helen, who had a weakness for philanthropy, and small practical experience of its economic aspect, flushed with indignation, pitying the stranger and resenting what she considered Thurston's brutality. Her father rose, when the contractor came in, to say that he wanted to look around the workings. He suggested that Helen should remain somewhere in the shade. When Thurston had placed a canvas lounge for her, outside the tent, the girl turned towards him a look of severe disapproval. " Why did you speak to that poor man so cruelly ? " she asked. " Perhaps I am transgress- ing, but it seems to me that one living here in comfort, even comparative luxury, might be a little more consid- erate towards those less fortunate." " Please remember that I was once what you term ' less fortunate' myself," Geoffrey reminded Helen, who an- swered quickly, " One would almost fancy it was you who had forgotten." " On the contrary, I am not likely to forget how hard it was for me to earn my first fee here in this new coun- try," he declared, looking straight at her. " I was glad to work up to my waist in ice-water to make, at first, scarcely a dollar and a half a day. One must exercise discretion, Miss Savine, and that man, so far as I could see, had no desire to work." It was a pity that Geoffrey did not explain that he meant Bransome's payment by the words " my first fee," for Helen had never forgotten how she had failed in the attempt to double the amount for which he had bar- gained. She had considered him destitute of all the gentler graces, but now she was surprised that he should apparently attempt to wound her. " Is it right to judge so hastily ? " she inquired, master- 100 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY ing her indignation with difficulty. " The poor man may not be fit for hard work — I think he said so — and I can- not help growing wrathful at times when I hear the stories which reach me of commercial avarice and tyranny."' Geoffrey blew a silver whistle, which summoned the foreman to whom he gave an order. " Your protege shall have an opportunity of proving his willingness to be useful by helping the cook/' Thurs- ton said with a smile at Helen. " Why did you do that — now ? " she asked, uncertain whether to be gratified or angry, and Geoffrey answered, " Because I fancied it would meet with your approval." " Then," declared Helen looking past him, " if that was your only motive, you were mistaken." The conversation dragged after that, and they were glad when Savine returned to escort his daughter part of the way to the ranch. When he rode back into camp alone an hour later, he dismounted with difficulty, and his face was grav as he reeled into the tent. " Give me some wine, Thurston — brandy if you have it, and don't ask questions. I shall be better in five minutes — I hope," he gasped. Geoffrey had no brandy, but he broke the neck off a bottle of his best substitute, and Savine lay very still on a canvas lounge, gripping one of its rails hard for long, anxious minutes before he said, " It is over, and I am myself again. Hope I didn't scare you! " "I was uneasy," Thurston replied. "Dare I ask, sir, what the trouble was?" Savine, who evidently had not quite recovered, looked steadily at the speaker. "I'll tell THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY For just a moment the old flame of quick anger burned in Geoffrey's eyes. Then he responded. " I regret you even imagine I could take an dishonor- able advantage of your daughter. God forbid that I should ever bring sorrow upon Miss Savine. All I ask is a fair field and the right to help her according to her need." "Forgive me!" returned Savine. "Of late I have grown scared about her future. I believe you, Thurston; I can't say more. I felt the more sure of you when you told me straight out about what was born in you. Lord, how I envied you ! The man who can stand those devils off can do most anything. It was when my wife died they got their claws on me. I was trying to forget my troubles by doing three men's work, but you can't fool with nature, and I'd done it too long already. Anyway, when I couldn't eat or sleep, they had their opportunity. At first they made my brain work quicker, but soon after I fell in with you I knew that, unless he had a good man beside him, Savine's game was over. But I wouldn't be beaten. I was holding on for Helen's sake to leave her a fortune and a name. " All this is getting monotonous to you but let me finish when I can." Savine waited a moment to regain his breath. " I cheated the nurse and doctor to-day, and I'll be very like a dead man to-morrow. You must go down to my offices and overhaul everything; then come right back and we'll see if we can make a deal. I'll have my proposition fixed up straight and square, but this is the gist of it. While doing your best for your own ad- vantage, hold Julius Savine's name clean before the world, win the most possible for Helen out of the wreck, and rush through the reclamation scheme — which is the key to all." " As you said — it's a big undertaking, but I'll do my best," began Geoffrey, but Savine checked him. " Go down and see what you make of things. Maybe A GREAT UNDERTAKING 155 the sight of them will choke you off. I'll take no other answer. Send Tom to me," he commanded. It was the next day when Geoffrey had an interview with Helen, who sent for him. She was standing beside a window when he came in. She looked tall in a long somber-tinted dress which emphasized the whiteness of her full round throat and the pallor of her face. The faint, olive coloring of her skin had faded; there were shadows about her eyes. At the first glance Geoffrey's heart went out towards her. It was evident the verdict of the physicians had been a heavy shock, but he fancied that she was ready to meet the inevitable with undimin- ished courage. Still, her fingers were cold when, for a moment, they touched his own. " Sit down, Geoffrey. I have a great deal to say to j r ou, and don't know how to begin," she said. " But first I am sincerely grateful for all you have done." " We will not mention that. Neither, I hope, need I say that Miss Savine of all people could never be indebted to me. You must know it already." Helen thanked him with her eyes as she sank into the chair he wheeled out so that the light left her face in shadow. Geoffrey stood near the window framing and he did not look directly towards her. Helen appreciated the consideration which prompted the action and the respect implied by his attitude. " I am going to ask a great deal of you, and remind you of a promise you once made." There was a little tremor in her voice. " You will not think it ungracious if I say there is no one else who can do what seems so nec- essary, and ask you if you do not consider that you owe something to my father. It is hard for me, not because I doubt you, but because " Geoffrey checked her with a half-raised hand. " Please don't, Miss Savine — I can understand. You find it diffi- cult to receive, when, as yet, you have, you think, but little to give. Would that make any difference? The little — 156 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY just to know that I had helped you — would be so much to me." Again Helen was grateful. The look of anxiety and distress returned as she went on. " I dare spare no effort for my father's sake. He has always been kindness itself to me, and it is only now that I know how much I love him. Hitherto I have taken life too easily, forgetting that sorrow and tragedy could overtake me. I have heard the physician's verdict, and know my father cannot be spared very long to me. I also know how his mind is set upon the completion of his last great scheme. That is why, and because of your protaise, I have dared ask help of — you." " Will it make it easier if I say that, quite apart from his daughter's wishes, I am bound in honor to protect the interests of Julius Savine so far as I can ? " interposed Geoffrey. " Your father found me much as you did, a struggling adventurer, and with unusual kindness helped me on the way to prosperity. All I have I owe to him, and perhaps, the more so because we have cunning enemies, my own mind is bent on the completion of the scheme. I believe that we shall triumph, Miss Savine, and I use the word advisedly, still expecting much from your father's skill." Helen gravely shook her head. " I recognize your kind intentions, but you must expect nothing. It is a hard thing for me to say, but the truth is always best, and again it is no small favor I ask from you, — to do the work for the credit of another's name — taking his task upon your shoulders, to make a broken man's last days easier. I want you to sign the new partnership agreement, and am glad you recognize that my father was a good friend to you." The girl's courage nearly deserter! her, for Helen was young still, and had been severely tried. While Geoffrey, who felt that he would give his life for the right to com- fort her, could only discreetly turn his face away. A GREAT UNDERTAKING 157 " I will do it all, Miss Savine," he said gravely. " I had already determined on as much, but you must try to believe that the future is not so hopeless as it looks. You will consider that I have given you a solemn pledge." " Then I can only say God speed you, for my thanks would be inadequate," Helen's voice trembled as she spoke. " But I must also ask your forgiveness for my presump- tion in judging you that day. I now know how far I was mistaken." Geoffrey knew to what she referred. The day had been a memorable one for him, and, with pulses throbbing, he moved forward a pace, his eyes fixed upon the speaker's* face. For a moment, forgetting everything, his resolu- tions were flung to the winds, and he trembled with pas- sion and hope. Then he remembered his promise to the sick man, and Helen's own warning, and recovered a partial mastery of himself. It was a mere sense of justice which prompted the girl's words, his reason warned him, but he felt, instinctively, that they implied more than this, though he did not know how much. He stood irresolute until Helen looked up, and, if it had ever existed, the time for speech was past. " I fear I have kept you too long, but there is still a question I must ask. You have seen my father in many of his moods, and there is something in the state of limp apathy he occasionally falls into which puzzles me. I cannot help thinking there is another danger of which I do not know. Can you not enlighten me?" Helen leaned forward, a strange fear stamped upon her face. Fresh from the previous struggle, Geoffrey, whose heart yearned to comfort her, felt his powers of resistance strained to the utmost. Still, it was a question that he could not answer. Remembering Savine's injunction — to hold her father's name clean — he said quickly: "There is nothing I can tell you. You must remember only that the physician admitted a cheering possibility.'' "I will try to believe in it." The trouble deepened in. 158 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY Helen's face, while her voice expressed bitter disappoint- ment. " You have been very kind and I must not tax you too heavily." Geoffrey turned away, distressed, for her and inwardly anathematized his evil fortune in being asked that partic- ular question. He had, he felt, faltered when almost within sight of victory, neglecting to press home an ad- vantage which might have won success. " It is, perhaps, the first time I have willfully thrown away my chances — the man who wins is the one who sees nothing but the prize," he told himself. " But I could not have taken ad- vantage of her anxiety for her father and gratitude to me, while, if I had, and won, there would be always be- tween us the knowledge that I had not played the game fairly." Thomas Savine came into the room. "I was looking for you, and want to know when you'll go down to Van- couver with me to puzzle through everything before finally deciding just what you're going to do," he said. They talked a few moments. After the older man left him, Geoffrey found himself confronted by Mrs. Savine. " I have been worried about vou " she asserted. " You're carrying too heavy a load, and it's wearing you thin. You look a very sick man to-day, and ought to re- member that the main way to preserve one's health is to take life easily." " I have no doubt of it, madam," Thurston fidgeted, fearing what might follow ; " but, unfortunately, one can- not always do so." Mrs. Savine held out a little phial as she explained : " A simple restorative is the next best thing, and you will find yourself braced in mind and body by a few doses of this. It is what I desired to fix up my poor brother-in-law with when you prevented me." " Then the least I can do is to take it myself," said Geoffrey, smiling to hide his uneasiness. " I presume you do not wish me to swallow it immediately?" A GREAT UNDERTAKING 159 Mrs. Savine beamed upon him. " You might hold out an hour or two longer, but delays are dangerous," she warned him. "Kindness! Well, there's a tolerable rea- son why we should be good to you, and, for I guess you're not a clever man all round, Geoffrey Thurston, you have piled up a considerable obligation in your favor in one direction." " May I ask you to speak more plainly, Mrs. Savine ? " Geoffrey requested and she answered : " You may, but I can't do it. Still, what you did, be- cause you thought it the fair thing, won't be lost to you. Now, don't ask any more fool questions, but go right away, take ten drops of the elixir, and don't worry. It will all come right some day." The speaker's meaning was discernible, and Geoffrey, having a higher opinion than many people of Mrs. Savine's sagacity, went out into the sunlight, satisfied. He held up the phial and was about to hurl it among the firs, but, either grateful for the donor's words, or softened by what he had heard and seen, he actually drank a little of it in- stead. Then came a revulsion from the strain of the last few days, and he burst into a laugh. " It would have been mean, and I dare say I haven't absorbed sufficient of the stuff to quite poison me," he said. CHAPTER XVI MILLICENT TURN'S TRAITRESS It was with a heavy sense of responsibility that Geoffrey returned from a visit to Savine's offices in Vancouver, and yet there was satisfaction mingled with his anxiety. Thomas Savine, who knew little of engineering, was no fool at finance, and the week they spent together made the situation comparatively plain. It was fraught with peril and would have daunted many a man, but the very uncer- tainty and prospect of a struggle which would tax every energy appealed to Thurston. He felt also that here was an opportunity of proving his devotion to Helen in the way he could do it best. " I'm uncommonly thankful we didn't send for an ac- countant; the fewer folks who handle those books the better," declared Thomas Savine. " I was prepared for a surprise, Thurston, but never expected this. I suppose things can be straightened out, but when I'd fixed up that balance, it just took my breath away. More than half the assets are unmarketable stock and ventures no man could value, while whether they will ever realize anything good- ness only knows. It's mighty certain Julius doesn't know himself what he has been doing the last two years. I can let my partners run our business down in Oregon and stay right here for a time, counting on you to do the outside work, if what you have seen hasn't ehoked you off. You haven't signed the agreement yet. How does the whole thing strike you? " " As chaos that can and must be reduced to order," answered Geoffrey with a reckless laugh. "I intend to sign the agreement, and, foresecim:' that you may have trouble about the money which I propose to spend freely, I am adding all my private savings to the working capital. 160 MILLICENT TURNS TRAITRESS 161 It is, therefore, neck or nothing with me now, as I fear it is with the rest of you, and, in my opinion, we should let everything but the reclamation scheme go. It will either ruin us or pay us five-fold if we can put it through." " Just so ! " and Savine nodded. " I leave that end to you, but I've got to explain things to Helen, and I don't like the thought of it. My niece has talents. As her fu- ture lies at stake, she has a right to know, but it will be another shock to her. Poor Julius brought her up in luxury, and I expect has been far too mixed of late to know that he was tottering towards the verge of bank- ruptcy. A smart outside accountant would have soon scented trouble, but I don't quite blame my brother's cashier, who is a clerk and nothing more, for taking everything at it's book value." That afternoon Helen sat with the two men in the library at High Maples. A roll of papers was on the table before her. When Thomas Savine had made the condition of things as plain as possible, she leaned back in her chair with crossed hands for a time. " I thank you for telling me so much, and I can grasp the main issues," she said at length. "If my opinion is of value I would say I agree with you that the bold course is best. But you will need much money, and as it is evi- dent money will not be plentiful, so I must do my part in helping you. Because this establishment and our mode of life here is expensive, while it will please my father to be near the scene of operations, we will let High Maples and retire to a mountain ranch. I fear we have maintained a style circumstances hardly justified too long." " It's a sensible plan all through. I must tell you Mr. Thurston has " began Savine, and ceased abruptly, when Geoffrey, who frowned at him, broke in: "We have troubled Miss Savine with sufficient details, and I fancy the arrangement suggested would help to keep her father tranquil, especially as our progress will be slow. Spring is near, and, in spite of our efforts, we shall 162 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY not be able to deepen the pass in the canon before the waters rise. That means we can do nothing there until next winter, and must continue the dyking all summer. It is very brave of you. Miss Savine." Helen smiled upon him as she answered : " The compliment is doubtful. Did you suppose I could do nothing? But we must march out with banners flying, or, more prosaically, paragraphs in the papers, stating that Julius Savine will settle near the scene of his most important operations. While you are here you should show yourself in public as much as possible, Mr. Thurston. Whenever I can help you, you must tell me, and I shall demand a strict account of your stewardship from both of you." The two men went away satisfied. Savine said : " I guess some folks are mighty stupid when they con- sider that only the ugly women are clever. There's my niece — well, nobody could call her plain, and you can see how she's taking hold instead of weakening. Some women never show the grit that's in them until they're fighting for their children; but you can look out for trouble, Thurston, if you fool away any chances, while Helen Savine's behind you fighting for her father." A few days later Henry Leslie, confidential secretary to the Industrial Enterprise Company, sat, with a frown upon his puffy face, in his handsome office. He wore a silk-bound frock coat, a garment not then common in Vancouver, and a floral spray from Mexico in his button- hole; but he was evidently far from happy, and glanced with ill-concealed dismay at the irate specimen of muscu- lar manhood standing before him. The man, who was a sturdy British agriculturalist, had forced his way in, defying the clerks specially instructed to intercept him. Leslie had first set up in business as a land agent, a call- ing which affords a promising field for talents of his particular description, and having taken the new arrival's money, had, by a little manipulation of the survey lines, MILLICENT TURNS TRAITRESS 163 transferred to him mostly barren rock and giant trees in- stead of land for hop culture. It was a game which had been often played before, but the particular rancher was a determined man and had announced his firm intention of obtaining his money back or wreaking summary ven- geance on his betrayer. " Danged if thee hadn't more hiding holes than a rotten, but I've hunted thee from one to one, and now I've found thee I want my brass," shouted the brawny, loud-voiced Briton. Leslie answered truthfully : " I tell you I haven't got it, even if you had any claim on me, and it's not my fault you're disappointed, if you foolishly bought land before you could understand a Canadian survey plan." " Then thou'lt better get it," was the uncompromising answer. " Understand a plan ! I've stuck to the marked one I got from thee, and there's lawyers in this country as can. It was good soil and maples I went up to see, and how the can anybody raise crops off the big stones thou sold me? I'm going to have my rights, and, meantime, I'm trapesing round all the bars in this city talking about thee. There's a good many already as be- lieve me." " Then you had better look out. Confound you ! " threatened Leslie, taking a bold course in desperation. " There's a law which can stop that game in this country, and I'll set it in motion. Anyway, I can't have you mak- ing this noise in my private office. Go away before I call my clerks to throw you out." The effort at intimidation was a distinct failure, for the aggrieved agriculturalist, who was not quite sober, laughed uproariously as he seized a heavy ruler. " That's a good van," he roared. "Thou darsen't for thy life go near a court with me, and the first clerk who tries to put me out, danged if I don't pound half the life out of him and thee. I'm stayin' here comf able until I get my money." 164 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY He pulled out a filthy pipe, and filled it with what, when he struck a match, turned out to be particularly vile tobacco, and Leslie, who fumed in his chair, said presently : " You are only wasting your time and mine — and for heaven's sake take a cigar and fling that pipe away. I haven't got the money by me, and it's the former owner's business, not mine, but if you'll call round, say the day after to-morrow, I'll see what we can do." He named the day, knowing that he would be absent then, and the stranger, heaving his heavy limbs out of an easy chair, helped himself to a handful of choice cigars before he prepared to depart, saying dubiously: "I'll be back on Wednesday bright and early, bringing several friends as will see fair play with me. One of them will be a lawyer, and if he's no good either, look out, mister, for I'll find another way of settling thee ! " There are in Canada, as well as other British Colonies, capitalists, dealing in lands and financing mines, whose efforts make for the progress of civilization and the good of the community. There are also others, described by their victims as a curse to any country. Representatives of both descriptions were interested in the Industrial En- terprise. Therefore, the unfortunate secretary groaned when one of the latter class, who passed his visitor in the doorway, came in smiling in a curious manner. Leslie, who hoped he had not heard much, was rudely undeceived. " I'm hardly surprised at certain words I heard in the corridor," he commenced. "Your English friend was telling an interesting tale about you to all the loungers in the Eideau bar to-day. They seemed to believe him — he told it very creditably. When are you going to stop it, Leslie?" ' •■ When I can pay him the equivalent of five hundred sterling in blackmail. I am afraid it will be a long time," answered the secretary, ruefully. " Then I would advise you to beg, borrow or steal the MILLICENT TURNS TRAITRESS 165 money. A man of your abilities and practical experience oughtn't to find much difficulty in this part of the world," said the newcomer. " The tale may have been a fabrica- tion, but it sounded true, and while I don't set up as a reformer I am a director of this Company, and can't have those rumors set going about its secretary. No, I don't want to hear your side of the case — it's probably highly creditable to you — but I know all about the kind of busi- ness you were running, and a good many other folks in this province do, too." " Who, in the name of perdition, would lend me the money? And it takes every cent I've got to live up to my post. You don't pay too liberally," sneered the un- fortunate man, stung into brief fury by the reference to his character. " I will," was the answer. " That is to say, I'll fix things up with the plain-spoken Britisher, and take your acknowledgment in return for his written statement that he has no claim on you. I know how to handle that breed of cattle, and mayn't press you for the money until you can pay it comfortably." " What are you doing it for ? " asked Leslie, dubiously. " For several reasons ; I don't mind mentioning a few. I want more say in the running of this Company, and I could get at useful facts my colleagues didn't know through its secretary. I could also give him instructions without the authority of a board meeting, see? And I fancy I could put a spoke in Savine's wheel best by doing it quietly my own way. One live man can often get through more than a squabbling dozen, and the money is really nothing much to me." " I had better sue the Englishman for defamation, and prove my innocence, even if the legal expenses ruin me," said Leslie, and the other, who laughed aloud, checked him. " Pshaw ! It is really useless trying that tone with me, especially as I have heard about another dispute of the 166 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY kind you once had at "Westminster. You're between the devil and the deep sea, but if you don't start kicking you'll get no hurt from me. Call it a deal — and, to change the subject, where's the man you sent up to worry Thurs- ston?" " I don't know," said Leslie. " I gave him a round sum, part of it out of my own pocket, for I couldn't in the meantime think of a suitable entry — all the directors don't agree with you. I know he started, but he has never come back again." " Then you have got to find him," was the dry answer. "We'll have law-suits and land commissions before we're through, and if Thurston has corralled or bought that man over, and plays him at the right moment, it would cer- tainly cost you your salary." " I can't find him ; I've tried," asserted Leslie. " Then you had better try again and keep right on try- ing. Get at Thurston through his friends if you can't do it any other way. Your wife is already a figure in local society." That night Leslie leaned against the mantelpiece in his quarters talking to his wife. They had just returned from some entertainment and Millicent, in beautiful evening dress, lay in a lounge chair watching him keenly. " You would not like to be poor again, Millicent ? " he said, fixing his glance, not upon her face but on her jeweled hands, and the woman smiled somewhat bitterly as she answered: " Poor again ! That would seem to infer that we are rous now. Do you know how much I owe half the ores in this city, Harry?" " I don't want to ! " said Leslie, with a gesture of im- patience. " Your tastes were always extravagant, and I mean the kind of poverty which is always refused credit." " My tastes!" and Millicent's tone was indignant. "I suppose I am fond of money, or the things that it can buy, and you may remember you once promised me plenty. MILLICENT TURNS TRAITRESS 167 But why can't you be honest and own that the display we make is part of your programme? I have grown tired of this scheming and endeavoring to thrust ourselves upon people who don't want us, and if you will be content to stay at home and progress slowly, Harry, I will gladly do my share to help you." Millicent Leslie was ambitious, but the woman who en- deavors to assist an impecunious husband's schemes by becoming a social influence usually suffers, even if suc- cessful, in the process, and Millicent had not been particu- larly successful. She was also subject to morbid fits of reflection, accompanied by the framing of good resolu- tions, which, for the moment at least, she meant to keep. It is possible that night might have marked a turning-point in her career had her husband listened to her, but before she could continue, his thin lips curled as he said : " Isn't it a little too late for either of us to practice the somewhat monotonous domestic virtues? You need not be afraid of hurting my feelings, Millicent, by veiling your meaning. But, in the first place, at the time you trans- ferred your affections to me I had the money, and, in the second, I must either carry out what you call my pro- gramme or go down with a crash shortly. If luck favors me the prize I am striving for is, however, worth winning, but things are going most confoundedly badly just now. In, fact, I shall be driven into a corner unless you can help me." Mrs. Leslie possessed no exalted code of honor, but, in her present frame of mind, her husband's words excited fear and suspicion, and she asked sharply, "What is it you want me to do ? " " I will try to explain. You know something of my business. I sent up a clever rascal to — well, to pass as a workman seeking employment, and so enable us to fore- stall some of Savine's mechanical improvements. He took the money I gave him and started, but we have never seen 168 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY him since, and it is particularly desirable that I should know whether he tried and failed or what has become of him. If the man made his exact commission known it would cost me my place. The very people who would applaud me if successful would be the first to make a scapegoat of me otherwise." " Your explanation is not quite lucid, but how could I get at the truth ? " " Ingratiate yourself with Miss Savine, or get that crack-brained aunt of hers to cure your neuralgia. There are also two young premium pupils, sons of leading Mon- treal citizens, in Mr. Savine's service, who dance attend- ance upon the fair Helen continually. It shouldn't be difficult to flatter them a little and set them talking." " Do you think women are utterly foolish, or that they converse about dams and earthworks?" asked Millicent, trying to check her rising indignation. " Xo, but I know a good many of you have the devil's own cunning, and there can be but few much keener than you. Women in this country know a great deal more about their lawful protectors' affairs than they generally do at home, and Miss Savine is sufficiently proud not to care whose wife you were if she took a fancy to you." "It would be utterly useless!" Leslie looked his wife over with coolly critical approval, noting how the soft lamplight sparkled in the pale gold clusters of her hair, the beauty that still hung to her somewhat careworn face, and how the costly dress enhanced the symmetry of a finely-moulded frame. " Then why can't you confine your efforts to the men ? You are pretty and clever enough to wheedle secrets out of Thurston's self even, now you have apparently become recoil' tied to him." >• the first time since the revelations that followed '- downfall a red brand of shame and singer flamed in Millicenfs cheeks. She rose, facing the speaker with an almost breathless '"Dow dare you? Is there no limit MILLICENT TURNS TRAITRESS 169 to the price I must pay for my folly ? Thurston was . But how could any woman compare him with you?" " Sit down again, Millicent," suggested Leslie with an uneasy laugh. "These heroics hardly become you — and nobody can extort a great deal in return for — nothing better than you. In any case, it's no use now debating whether one or both of us were foolish. I'm speaking no more than the painful truth when I say that if I can't get the man back into my hands I shall have to make a break without a dollar from British Columbia. Since you have offended your English friends past forgiveness, God knows what would become of you if that happened, while Thurs- ton would marry Miss Savine and sail on to riches — con- fusion to him ! " Millicent was never afterwards certain why she ac- cepted the quest from which she shrank with loathing, at first. While her husband proceeded to substantiate the truth of his statement, she was conscious of rage and shame, as well as a profound contempt for him; and, be- cause of it, she felt an illogical desire to inflict suffering upon the man whom she now considered had too readily accepted his rejection. Naturally, she disliked Miss Sa- vine. She was possessed by an abject fear of poverty, and so, turning a troubled face towards the man, she said : " I don't know that I shall ever forgive you, and I feel that you will live to regret this night's work bitterly. However, as you say, it is over late for us to fear losing the self-respect we parted with long ago. Rest contented —I will try." "That is better, we are what ill-luck or the devil made us" replied Leslie, laying his hand on his wife's white shoulder, but in spite of her recent declaration Millicent shrank from his touch. " Your fingers burn me. Take them away. As I said, I will help you, but if there was any faint hope of happi- ness or better things left us, you have killed it," she de- clared in a decided tone. 170 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY "I should say the chance was hardly worth counting on," answered Leslie, as he withdrew to soothe himself with a brandy-and-soda. Millicent sat still in her chair, with her hands clenched hard on the arms of it, staring straight before her. CHAPTEK XVII THE INFATUATION OF ENGLISH JIM It was perhaps hardly wise of Geoffrey Thurston to sud- denly promote English Jim from the position of camp cook to that of amanuensis. Geoffrey, however, found himself hard pressed when it became necessary to divide his time between Vancouver and the scene of practical operations, and he remembered that the man he had pro- moted had been Helen's protege. James Gillow was a fair draughtsman, also, and, if not remarkable otherwise for mental capacity, wielded a facile pen, and Geoffrey found it a relief to turn his rapidly-increasing correspondence over to him. It was for this reason Gillow accompanied him on a business trip to Victoria. English Jim enjoyed the visit, the more so because he found one or two acquaintances who had achieved some degree of prosperity in that fair city. He was entertained so well that on the morning of Geoffrey's return he boarded the steamer contented with himself and the world in general. He was perfectly sober, so he afterwards de- cided, or on board a rolling vessel he could never have suc- ceeded in working out quantities from rough sketches Thurston gave him. But he had breakfasted with his friends, just before sailing, and the valedictory potations had increased, instead of assuaging, his thirst. The steamer was a fast one. The day was pleasant with the first warmth of Spring, and Geoffrey sat under the lee of a deckhouse languidly enjoying a cigar and looking out across the sparkling sea. Gillow, who came up now and then for a breath of air, envied him each time he returned to pore over papers that rose and fell perplexingly on one end of the saloon table. It was hard to get his scale ex- 171 172 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY actly on the lines of the drawings; the sunrays that beat in through the skylights dazzled his eyes, and his sight did not become much keener after each visit to the bar. Nevertheless, few persons would have suspected English Jim of alcoholic indulgence as he jotted down weights and quantities in his pocket-book. Meantime, Thurston began to find the view of the snow-clad Olympians grow monotonous. It is true that ever}- pinnacle was silhouetted, a spire of unsullied white- ness, against softest azure. The peaks towered, a sight to entrance the vision — ethereally majestic above a cerulean sea — but Geoffrey had seen rather too much snow un- pleasantly close at hand within the last few months. Therefore, he opened the newspaper beside him, and frowned to see certain rumors he had heard in Victoria embodied in an article on the Crown lands policy. Any- one with sufficient knowledge to read between the lines could identify the writer's instances of how gross injustice might be done the community with certain conditional grants made to Savine. " That man has been well posted. He may have been influenced by a mistaken public spirit or quite possibly by a less praiseworthy motive; but if we have any more bad breakdowns I can foresee trouble/' Geoffrey said to himself. Then he turned his eyes towards the groups of passen- gers, and presently started at the sight of a lady carrying a camp chair, a book, and a bundle of wrappings along the heaving deck. It was Millicent Leslie, and there was no doubt that she had recognized him, for she had set down her burden and was waiting for his assistance. Geoffrey was at her side in a moment and presently ensconced her snugly under the lee of the deckhouse, where he waited, by no means wholly pleased at the meeting. He had spent most of the previous night with certain men interested in finance and provincial politics, and being new to the gen- tle art of wire-pulling had not quite recovered his serenity. THE INFATUATION OF ENGLISH JIM 173 He regretted the good cigar he had thrown away, and scarcely felt equal to sustaining the semi-sentimental trend of conversation Millicent had affected whenever he met her, but she was alone, and cut off all hope of escape by saying: "You will not desert me. One never feels solitude so much as when left to one's own resources among a crowd of strangers." " Certainly not, if you can put up with my company ; but where is your husband ? " Geoffrey responded. Milli- cent looked up at him with a chastened expression. " Enjoying himself. Some gentlemen, whose good-will is worth gaining, asked him to go inland for a few days' fishing, and he said it was necessary he should accept the invitation. Accordingly, I am as usual left to my own company while I make a solitary journey down the Sound. It is hardly pleasant, but I suppose all men are much the same, and we poor women must not complain." Millicent managed to convey a great deal more than she said, and her sigh suggested that she often suffered keenly from loneliness; but while Geoffrey felt sorry for her, he was occupied by another thought just then, and did not at first answer. " What are you puzzling over, Geoffrey ? " she asked, and the man smiled as he answered : " I was wondering if the same errand which took your husband to Victoria, was the same that sent me there." " I cannot say." Millicent's gesture betokened weari- ness. " I know nothing of my husband's business, and must do him the justice to say that he seldom troubles me about it. I have little taste for details of intricate financial scheming, but practical operations, like your task among the mountains, would appeal to me. It must be both romantic and inspiring to pit one's self against the rude forces of Nature ; but one grows tired of the prosaic strug- gle which is fought by eating one's enemies' dinners and patiently bearing the slights of lukewarm allies' wives. 174 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY However, since the fear of poverty is always before me, I try to play my part in it." Helen Savine had erred strangely when she concluded that Geoffrey Thurston was without sympathy. Hard and painfully blunt as he could be, he was nevertheless com- passionate towards women, though not always happy in expressing his feelings, and when Millicent folded her slender hands with a pathetic sigh, he was moved to sin- cere pity and indignation. He knew that some of the worthy Colonials' wives and daughters could be, on occa- sion, almost brutally frank, and that, in spite of his efforts, Leslie was not wholly popular. " I can quite understand ! It must be a trying life for you, but there are always chances for an enterprising man in this country, and you must hope that your husband will shortly raise you above the necessity of enduring un- congenial social relations." " Please don't think I am complaining." Millicent read his sympathy in his eyes. " It was only because you looked so kind that I spoke so frankly. I fear that I have grown morbid and said too much. But one-sided confidence is hardly fair, and, to change the subject, tell me how fortune favors you." "Where shall I begin?" Millicent smiled, as most men would have fancied, be- witchingly. " You need not be bashful. Tell me about your ad- ventures in the mountains, with all the hairbreadth es- capes, fantastic coloring, and romantic medley of incidents that must be crowded into the life of anyone engaged in such work as yours." " I am afraid the romance wears thin, leaving only a monotonous, not to say sordid, reality, while details of cubic quantities would hardly interest you. Still, and re- member you have brought it upon yourself, I will do my best." Geoffrey reluctantly began an account of his experi- THE INFATUATION OF ENGLISH JIM 175 ences, speaking in an indifferent manner at first, but warming to his subject, until he spoke eloquently at length. He was not a vain man, but Millicent had set the right chord vibrating when she chose the topic of his new- world experiences. He stopped at last abruptly, with an uneasy laugh. " There ! I must have tired you, but you must blame yourself," he said. " No ! " Millicent assured him. " I have rarely heard anything more interesting. It must be a very hard battle, well worth winning, but you are fortunate in one respect — having only the rock and river to contend against in- stead of human enemies." " I am afraid we have both," was the incautious an- swer, and Millicent looked out across the white-flecked waters as she commented indifferently, " But there can be nobody but simple cattle-raisers and forest-clearers in that region, and what could your enemies gain by following you there?" " They might interfere with my plans or thwart them. One of them nearly did so ! " and Geoffrey, hesitating, glanced down at his companion just a second too late to notice the look of suspiciously-eager interest in her face, for Millicent had put on the mask again. She was a clever actress, quick to press into her service smile or sigh, where words might have been injudicious, and with femi- nine curiosity and love of unearthing a secret, was bent on drawing out the whole story. It did not necessarily fol- low that she should impart the secret to her husband, she said to herself. Geoffrey was, for the moment, off his guard, and victory seemed certain for the woman. " How did that happen ? " she asked, outwardly with languid indifference, inwardly quivering with suspense, but, as luck would have it, the steamer, entering one of the tide races which sweep those narrow waters, rolled wildly just then, and Geoffrey held her chair fast while the book fell from her knee and went sliding down the 176 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY slanted deck. Vexed and nervously anxious, Millicent bit one red lip while Thurston pursued the volume, and she could hardy conceal her chagrin when he returned with it. " It flew open and a page or two got wet in the scup- pers. Still, it will soon dry in the sun, and because I did my best, you will excuse me being a few seconds too slow to save it," Geoffrey apologized. Millicent was willing to allow him to deceive himself as to the cause of her annoyance. " It was a borrowed book, and I can hardly return it in this condition. It is really vexatious," she replied, won- dering how to lead the conversation back to the place where it was interrupted. She might have succeeded, but fate seemed against her. A passenger, who knew them both, strolled by and nodded to Geoffrey. " I have been looking for you, Thurston, and if Mrs. Leslie, accepting my excuses, can spare you for a few minutes, I have something important to tell you," said the man. " I wouldn't have disturbed you, but we'll be alongside Vancouver wharf very shortly." M illicent could only bow in answer, and after an apolo- getic glance in her direction, Geoffrey followed the pas- senger. " Mrs. Leslie's a handsome woman, though one would guess she had a temper of her own. Perhaps you didn't notice it, but she just looked daggers at you when you let that hook get away," observed the companion, who smiled when Geoffrey answered: " Presumably, you didn't take all this trouble to ac- quaint me with that fact?" '• No," admitted the man, with a whimsical gesture. " It was something much more interesting — about the agitation some folks are trying to whoop up against your partner." Geoffrey found the information of so much interest that the steamer was sweeping through the pine-shrouded Narrows which forms the gateway of Vancouver's land- THE INFATUATION OF ENGLISH JIM 177 locked harbor when he returned to Millicent, with Eng- lish Jim following discreetly behind him. " I am sorry that, as we are half-an-hour late, I shall barely have time to keep an important business appoint- ment," said Thurston. " However, as the Sound boat does not sail immediately, my assistant, Mr. Gillow, will be able to look after your baggage, and secure a good berth for you. You will get hold of the purser, and see Mrs. Leslie is made comfortable in every way before you follow me, Gillow. I shall not want you for an hour or two." Millicent smiled on the assistant, who took his place beside her, as the steamer ran alongside the wharf, and his employer hurried away. English Jim was a young, good-looking man of some education, and, since his pro- motion from the cook-shed, had indulged himself in a former weakness for tasteful apparel. He had also, though Thurston did not notice it, absorbed just sufficient alco- holic stimulant to render him vivacious in speech without betraying the reason for it, and Millicent, who found him considerably more amusing than Geoffrey, wondered whether, since she had failed with the one, she might not succeed with the other. English Jim no more connected her with the servant of the corporation whose interests were opposed to Savine's than he remembered the brass baggage checks in his pocket. His gratified vanity blinded him to everything besides the pleasure of being seen in his stylish companion's company. He found a sunny corner for her beside one of the big Sound steamer's paddle casings, from which she could look across the blue waters of the forest-girt inlet, brought up a chair and some English papers, and after Millicent had chatted with him graciously, was willing to satisfy her curiosity to the utmost when she said with a smile: "You are a confidential assistant of Mr. Thurston's? He is an old friend of mine, and knowing his energy. I dare say he works you very hard." " Hard is scarcely an adequate term, madam," an- 178 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY 6wered English Jim. " Xothing can tire my respected chief, and unfortunately, he expects us all to equal him. He found me occupation — writing his letters — until 1 A. M. this morning ; and, I believe, must have remained awake himself until it was almost light, making drawings which I have had the pleasure of poring over, all the way across. Don't you think, madam, that it is a mistake to work so hard, that one has never leisure for the serene contempla- tion which is one of the — one of the best things in life. Besides, people who do so, are also apt to deprive others of their opportunities." u Perhaps so, though I hardly think Mr. Thurston would agree with you. For instance ? " asked Millicent, finding his humor infectious, for English Jim could gather all the men in camp about him, when half in jest and half in earnest he began one of his discourses. " These ! " was the answer, and the speaker thrust his hand into his jacket pocket. "If Mr. Thurston had not been of such tireless nature, I might have found leisure to admire the beauty of this most entrancing coast scenery, instead of puzzling over weary figures in a particularly stuffy saloon." He held up a large handful of papers as he spoke, glanced at them disdainfully, and, pointing vaguely across the inlet, continued, " Is not an hour's contemplation of such a prospect better than many days' labor?" Millicent laughed outright, and, because, though Eng- lish Jim's voice was even, and his accent crisp and clean, his fingers were not quite so steady as they might have en, one of the papers fluttered, unnoticed by either of them, to her feet. "I feel tempted to agree with you," Millicent rejoined, wishing that she need not press on to the main point, for English Jim promised to afford the sort of entertainment which she enjoyed. " But a man of your frame of mind must find scanty opportunity for considering such ques- tions among the mountains." THE INFATUATION OF ENGLISH JIM 179 " That is so," was the rueful answer. " We commence our toil at daybreak, and too often continue until mid- night. There are times when the monotony jars upon a sensitive mind, as the camp cooking does upon a sensitive palate. But our chief never expects more from us than he will do himself, and is generous in rewarding merito- rious service." " So I should suppose," commented Millicent. " Know- ing this, you will all be very loyal to him ? " " Every one of us ! " The loyalty of English Jim, who gracefully ignored the inference and fell into the trap, was evident enough. " Of course, we do not always approve of being tired to death, but where our chief considers it necessary, we are content to obey him. In fact, it would not make much difference if we were not," he added whimsically. " There was, however, one instance of a black sheep, or rather wolf of the contemptible coyote species in sheep's clothing, whom I played a minor part in catching. But, naturally, you will not care to hear about this?" " I should, exceedinglv. Did I not sav that I am one of Mr. Thurston's oldest friends? I should very much like to hear about the disguised coyote. I presume you do not mean a real one, and are speaking figuratively ? " Gillow was flattered by the glance she cast upon him, and, remembering only that this gracious lady was one of his employer's friends, proceeded to gratify her by launch- ing into a vivid description of what happened on the night when he dropped the prowler into the river. He had, however, sense enough to conclude with the capture of the man. " But you have not told me the sequel," said Millicent. " Did you lynch the miscreant in accordance with the tra- ditional customs of the West, or how did Mr. Thurston punish him? He is not a man who lightly forgives an in- jury.^ Xo," replied Gillow, rashly. "Against my advice, " xr. 180 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY though my respected employer is difficult to reason with, he kept the rascal in camp, both feeding and paying him well." " You surprise me. I should have expected a more dramatic finale." Millicentfs tone might have deceived a much more clever man who did not know her husband's position. "Why did he do so?" There were, however, limits to English Jim's communi- cativeness, and he answered : " Mr. Thurston did not ex- plain his motives, and it is not always wise to ask him in- "jndicious questions." Millicent, having learned what she desired to know, rested content with this, and chatted on other subjects until the big bell clanged, and the whistle shrieked out its warning. Then she dismissed Gillow with her thanks, and the last she saw of him he was being held back by a policeman as he struggled to scale a lofty railing while the steamer slid clear of the wharf. He waved an arm in the air shouting frantically, and through the thud of paddles she caught the disjointed sentences, " Very sorry. Forgot baggage checks — all your boxes here. Leave first steamer — sending checks by mail ! " " It is impossible for us to turn back, madam," said the purser to whom Millicent appealed. "The baggage will, no doubt, follow the day after to-morrow." " But that gentleman has my ticket, and doesn't know my address!" protested the unfortunate passenger, and the purser answered : " I really cannot help it, but I will telegraph to any of your friends from the first way-port we call at, madam." When the steamer had vanished hehind the stately pines shrouding I he Narrows, English Jim sat down upon a tim- ber-head and swore a little at what he called his luck, ore he uneasily recounted the folded papers in his v. a I IcV. " A pretty mess I've made of it all, and there'll be no • id of trouble if Thurston hears of this," he said aloud, THE INFATUATION OF ENGLISH JIM 181 so that a loafing porter heard and grinned. " I'll write a humble letter — but, confound it, I don't know where she's going to, and now here is one of those distressful tracings missing. It must have been that old sketch of Savine's, and Thurston will never want it, while nobody but a draughtsman could make head or tail of the thing. Anyway, I'll get some dinner before I decide what is best to be done." While Giilow endeavored to enjoy his dinner, and, being an easy-going man, partially succeeded, Millicent, who had picked up a folded paper, leaned upon the steamer's rail with it open in her hand. " This is Greek to me, but I suppose it is of value. I will keep it, and perhaps give it back to Geoffrey," she ruminated. " The game was amusing, but I feel horribly mean, and whether I shall tell Harry or not depends very much upon his behavior." CHAPTER XVIII THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE One morning of early summer, Geoffrey Thurston lay neither asleep, nor wholly awake, inside his double tent. The canvas was partly drawn open, and from his camp-cot he could see a streak of golden sunlight grow broader across the valley, while rising in fantastic columns the night mists rolled away. The smell of dew-damped cedars mingled with the faint aromatic odors of wood smoke.. The clamor of frothing water vibrated through the sweet cool air, for the river was swollen by melted snow. Geoffrey lay still, breathing in the glorious freshness, drowsily content. All had gone smoothly with the works, at least, during the last month or two. Each time that she rode down to camp with her father from the mountain ranch, Helen had spoken to him with unusual kindness. Savine would, when well enough, spend an hour in Geof- frey's tent. While some of the contractor's suggestions were characterized by his former genius, most betrayed a serious weakening of his mental powers, and it was ap- parent that he grew rapidly frailer, physically. On this particular morning Geoffrey found something very soothing in the river's song, and, yielding to tempta- tion, he turned his head from the growing light to indulge in another half-hour's slumber. Suddenly, a discordant note, jarring through the deep-toned harmonies, struck his ears, which were quick to distinguish between the bass roar of the canon and the higher-pitched calling of the rapid at its entrance. What had caused it he could not ti'll. He dressed with greatest haste and was striding down into the camp when Mattawa Tom and Gillow came running towards him. 182 THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE 183 " Sluice number six has busted, and the water's going in over Hudson's ranch," shouted Tom. " I've started all the men there's room for heaving dirt in, but the river's going through in spite of them." Geoffrey asked no questions, but ran at full speed through the camp, shouting orders as he went, and pres- ently stood breathless upon a tall bank of raw red earth. On one side the green-stained river went frothing past ; on the other a muddy flood spouted through a breach, and already a shallow lake was spreading fast across the cleared land, licking up long rows of potato haulm and timothy grass. Men swarmed like bees about the sloping side of the bank, hurling down earth and shingle into the aper- ture, but a few moments' inspection convinced Geoffrey that more heroic measures were needed and that they labored in vain. Raising his hand, he called to the men to stop work and, when the clatter of shovels ceased, he quietly surveyed the few poor fields rancher Hudson had won from the swamp. His lips were pressed tight to- gether, and his expression showed his deep concern. "There's only one thing to be done. Open two more sluice gates, Tom," he commanded. "You'll drown out the whole clearing," ventured the foreman, and Geoffrey nodded. " Exactly ! Can't you see the river will tear all this part of the dyke away unless we equalize the pressure on both sides of it? Go ahead at once and get it done." The man from Mattawa wondered at the bold order, but his master demanded swift obedience and he pro- ceeded to execute it, while Geoffrey stood fast watching two more huge sheets of froth leap out. He knew that very shortly rancher Hudson's low-level possessions would be buried under several feet of water. "It's done, sir, and a blamed bad job it is!" said the foreman, returning; and Geoffrey asked: "How did it happen ? " 'The sluice gate wasn't strong enough, river rose a 184 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY foot yesterday, and she just busted. I was around bright and early and found her splitting. Got a line round the pieces — they're floating beneath you." " Heave them up ! " ordered Geoffrey. He was obeyed, and for a few minutes glanced at the timber frame with a puzzled expression, then turning to Gillow, he said : " You know I condemned that mode of scarfing, and the whole thing's too light. What carpen- ters made it?" " It's one of Mr. Savine's gates, sir. I've got the draw- ing for it somewhere," was the answer, and Geoffrey frowned. " Then you will keep that fact carefully to yourself," he replied. " It is particularly unfortunate. This is about the only gate I have not overhauled personally, but one cannot see to quite everything, and naturally the breakage takes place at that especial point." " Very good, sir," remarked Gillow. " Things generally do happen in just that way. Here's rancher Hudson coming, and he looks tolerably angry." The man who strode along the dyke was evidently in- furiated, a fact which was hardly surprising, considering that he owned the flooded property. The workmen, who now leaned upon their shovels, waited for the meeting between him and their master in the expectation of amusement. u What in the name of thunder do you mean by turn- ing your infernal river loose on my ranch? " inquired the newcomer. Thurston rejoined : " May I suggest that you try to master your temper and consider the case coolly before you ask any further questions." " Consider it coolly ! " shouted Hudson. " Coolly ! when the blame water's washing out my good potatoes by the hundred bushel, and slooshing mud and shingle a' I over my hay. Great Columbus! IT make things red hot for you." THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE 185 " See here ! " and there were signs that Thurston was losing his temper. " What we have done was most un- fortunately necessary, but, while I regret it at least as much as you do, you will not be a loser financially. As soon as the river falls, we 11 run off the water, measure up the flooded land, and pay you current prices for the crop at average acre yield. As you will thus sell it with- out gathering or hauling to market, it's a fair offer." Most of the forest ranchers in that region would have closed with the offer forthwith, but there were reasons why the one in question, who was, moreover, an obstinate, cantankerous man, should seize the opportunity to harass Thurston. " It's not half good enough for me," he said. " How'm I going to make sure you won't play the same trick again, while it's tolerably certain you can't keep on paying up for damage done forever. Then when you're cleaned out where'll I be? This scheme which you'll never put through's a menace to the whole vallej', and " " You'll be rich, I hope, by that time, but if you'll con- fine yourself to your legitimate grievance or come along to my tent I'll talk to you," said Geoffrey. " If, on the other hand, you cast doubt upon my financial position or predict my failure before my men, I'll take decided measures to stop you. You have my word that you will be repaid every cent's worth of damage done, and that should be enough for any reasonable person." " It's not — not enough for me by a long way," shouted the rancher. " I'll demand a Government inspection,. I'll— I'll break you." "Will you show Mr. Hudson the quickest and safest way off this embankment, Tom," requested Geoffrey, coolly, and there was laughter mingled with growls < f approval from the men, as the irate rancher, hurling threats over his shoulder, was solemnly escorted along the dyke by the stalwart foreman. He turned before de- scending, and shook his fist at those who watched hiro. 186 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY " I think you can close the sluices," said Geoffrey, when the foreman returned. " Then set all hands filling in this hole. I want you, Gillow." " We are going to have trouble," he predicted, when English Jim stood before him in his tent. " Hudson un- fortunately is either connected with our enemies, or in their clutches, and he'll try to persuade his neighbors to join him in an appeal to the authorities. Send a mes- senger off at once with this telegram to Vancouver, but stay — first find me the drawing of the defective gate." English Jim spent several minutes searching before he answered : u I'm sorry I can't quite lay my hands upon it. It may be in Vancouver, and I'll write a note to the folks down there." He did so, and when he went out shook his head rue- fully. " That confounded sketch must have been the one I lost on board the steamer," he decided with a qualm of misgiving. " However, there is no use meeting trouble half-way by telling Thurston so, until I'm sure bej'ond a doubt." Some time had passed, and the greater portion of Hud- son's ranch still lay under water when, in consequence of representations made by its owner and some of his friends, a Government official armed with full powers to investi- gate held an informal court of inquiry in the big store shed, at which most of the neighboring ranchers were present. Geoffrey and Thomas Savine, who brought a lawyer with him, awaited the proceedings with some im- patience. " L have nothing to do with any claim for damages. If necessary, the sufferers can appeal to the civil courts," announced the official. " My business is to ascertain whether, as alleged, the way these operations are con- ducted endangers the occupied, and unappropriated Crown lands in this vicinity. I am willing to hear your opin- ions, gentlemen, beginning with the complainants." Rancher Hudson was the first to speak, and he said: THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE 187 " No sensible man would need much convincing that it's mighty bad for growing crops to have a full-bore flood turned loose on them. What's the use of raising hay and potatoes for the river to wash away? And it's plain that what has just happened is going to happen again. Before Savine began these dykes the river spread itself all over the lower swamp; now the walls hold it up, and each time it makes a hole in them, our property's most turned into a lake. I'm neither farming for pleasure nor running a salmon hatchery." There was a hum of approval from the speaker's sup- porters, whose possessions lay near the higher end of the valley, and dissenting growls from those whose boundaries lay below. After several of the ranchers from the lower valley had spoken the official said : " I hardly think you have cited sufficient to convince an unprejudiced person that the works are a public danger. You have certainly proved that two holdings have been temporarily flooded, but the first speaker pointed out that this was because the river was prevented from spreading all over the lower end of the valley, as it formerly did. Now a portion of the district is already under cultivation, and even the area under crop exceeds that of the dam- aged plots by at least five acres to one." There was applause from the men whose possessions had been converted into dry land, and Hudson rose, red-faced and indignant, to his feet again. " Has Savine bought up the whole province, Government and all ? That's what I'm wanting to know," he rejoined indignantly. " What is it we pay taxes to keep you fel- lows for? To look the other way when the rich man winks, and stand by seeing nothing while he ruins poor settlers' hard-won holdings? I'm a law-abiding man, I am, but I'm going to let nobody tramp on me." A burst of laughter filled the rear of the building when one of Hudson's supporters pulled him down by main force, and held him fast, observing, " You just sit right 188 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY there, and look wise instead of talking too much. I guess you've said enough already to mix everything up." The official raised his hand. "I am here to ask ques- tions and not answer them," he said. " Any more speeches resembling the last would be likely to get the in- quirer into trouble. I must also remind Mr. Hudson that, after one inundation, he signed a document signifying his approval of the scheme, and I desire to ask him what has caused the change in his opinions." Again there was laughter followed by a few derisive comments from the party favoring Thurston's cause, while one voice was audible above the rest, " Hudson's been buy- ing horses. Some Vancouver speculator's check ! " The rancher, shaking off his follower's grasp, bounded to his feet, and glared at the men behind him. " I'll get square with some of you fellows later on," he threat- ened. Turning towards the officer, he went on : " Just because I'm getting tired of being washed out I've changed my mind. When he's had two crops ruined, a man begins to get uneasy about the third one — see ? " " It is a sufficient reason," answered the official. " Now, gentlemen, I gather that some of you have benefited by this scheme. If you have any information to give me, I shall be pleased to hear it." Several men told how they had added to their hold- ings many acres of fertile soil, which had once been swamp, and the Crown official said: " I am convinced that two small ranches have been temporarily inundated, and six or seven benefited. So much for that side of the question. I must now ascer- tain whether the work is carried out in the most efficient manner, and how many have suffered in minor waya by the contractors' willful neglect, as the petitioners allege." Hudson and his comrades testified at length, hut each in turn, after making the most of the accidental upset of a barrow-load of earth among their crops, or the blunder- ing of a steer into a trench, harked back to the broken THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE 189 sluice. When amid some laughter they concluded, others who favored Savine described the precautions Thurston had taken. Then the inquirer turned over his papers, and Thomas Savine whispered to Geoffrey : " It's all in our favor so far, but I'm anxious about that broken sluice. It's our weak point, and he's sure to tackle it." " Yes," agreed Geoffrey, whose face was strangely set. " I am anxious about it, too. Can you suggest anything I should do, Mr. Gray?" The Vancouver lawyer, who had a long experience in somewhat similar disputes, hitched forward his chair. " Xot at present," he answered. " I think with Mr. Savine that the question of the sluice gate may be serious. Allowances are made for unpreventable accidents and force of circumstances, but a definite instance of a wholly inefficient appliance or defective workmanship might be most damaging. It is particularly unfortunate it was framed timber of insufficient strength that failed." Geoffrey made no answer, but Thomas Savine, who glanced at him keenly, fancied he set his teeth while the lawyer, turning to the official inquirer, said: " These gentlemen have given you all the information in their power, and if you have finished with them, I would venture to suggest that any technical details of the work concern only Mr. Thurston and yourself." There was a protest from the assembly, and the officer beckoned for silence before he answered : " You gentlemen seem determined between you to con- duct the whole case your own way. I was about to dismiss with thanks the neighboring landholders who have assisted me to the best of their ability." With some commotion the store-shed was emptied of all but the official, his assistant, and Thurston's party. Beckoning to Geoffrey, the official held up before his astonished eyes a plan of the defective gate. " Do you consider the timbering specified here sufficient for the 190 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY strain ? " he asked. " I cannot press the question, but it would be judicious of you to answer it." " No ! " replied Geoffrey, divided between surprise and dismay. The drawing was Savine's. He could recognize the figures upon it, but it had evidently been made when the contractor was suffering from a badly-clouded brain. The broken gate itself was damaging evidence, but this was worse, for a glance at the design showed him that the artificers who worked from it had, without orders even, slightly increased the dimensions. Any man with a knowledge of mechanical science would condemn it, but, while he had often seen Savine incapable of mental effort of late, this was the first serious blunder that he had dis- covered. The mistake, he knew, would be taken as evi- dence of sheer incapacity ; if further inquiry followed, per- haps it would be published broadcast in the papers, and Geoffrey was above all things proud of his professional skill. Still, he had pledged his word to both his partner and his daughter, and there was only one course open to him, if the questions which would follow made it possible. The lawyer, leaning forward, whispered to Thomas Savine, and then said aloud, " If that drawing is what it purports to be, it must have been purloined. May we ask accordingly how it came into your possession?" " One of the complainants forwarded it to me. He said he— obtained — it," was the dry answer. " Under the circumstances, I hesitate to make direct use of it, but by the firm's stamp it appears genuine." " That Mr. Savine could personally be capable of such a mistake as this is impossible on the face of it," said the inquirer's professional assistant. " It is the work of a hali'-t rained man, and suggests two questions, Do you repudiate the plan, and, if you do not, was it made by a responsible person? I presume you have a draughts- man ? " "There is no use repudiating anything that bears our THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE 191 stamp," said Geoffrey, disregarding the lawyer's frown, and looking steadily into the bewildered face of Thomas Savine. " I work out all such calculations and make the sketches myself. My assistant sometimes checks them/' The official, who had heard of the young contractor's reputation for daring skill, looked puzzled as he com- mented : " From what you say the only two persons who could have made the blunder are Mr. Savine and yourself. I am advised, and agree with the suggestion, that Mr. Savine could never have done so. From what I have heard, I should have concluded it would have been equally impossible with you; but I can't help saying that the inference is plain." "Is not all this beside the question?" interposed the lawyer. "The junior partner admits the plan was made in the firm's offices, and that should be sufficient." Geoffrey held himself stubbornly in hand while the officer answered that he desired to ascertain if it was the work of a responsible person. He knew that this blunder would be recorded against him, and would neces- sitate several brilliant successes before it could be obliter- ated, but his resolution never faltered, and when the legal adviser, laying a hand upon his arm, whispered some- thing softly, he shook off the lawyer's grasp. " The only two persons responsible are Mr. Savine and myself — and you suggested the inference was plain," he asserted. Here Gillow, who had been fidgeting nervously, opened his lips as if about to say something, but closed them again when his employer, moving one foot beneath the table, trod hard upon his toe. " I am afraid I should hardly mend matters by saying I am sorry it is," said the official, dryly. "However, a mistake by a junior partner does not prove your firm in- capable of high-class work, and 1 hardly think you will be troubled by further interference after my report is 192 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY made. My superiors may warn you — but I must not anticipate. It is as well you answered frankly, as, other- wise, I should have concluded you were endeavoring to make your profits at the risk of the community ; but I cannot help saying that the admission may be prejudicial to you, Mr. Thurston, if you ever apply individually for a Government contract. Here is the drawing. It is vour property." Geoffrey stretched out his hand for it, but Savine was too quick for him, and when he thrust it into his pocket, the contractor, rising abruptly, stalked out of the room. Gillow, who followed and overtook him, said : " I can't understand this at all, sir. Mr. Savine made that drawing. I know his arrows on the measurement lines, and I was just going to say so when you stopped me. I have a confession to make. I believe I dropped that paper out of my wallet on board the steamer." " You have a very poor memory, Gillow," and Thurs- ton stared the speaker out of countenance. " I fear your eyes deceive you at times as well. You must have lost it somewhere else. In any case, if 3*ou mention the fact to anybody else, or repeat that you recognize Mr. Savine's handiwork, I shall have to look for an assistant who does not lose the documents with which he is entrusted." Gillow went away growling to himself, but perfectly satisfied with both his eyesight and memory. Thurston had hardly dismissed him than Thomas Savine ap- proached, holding out the sketch. " See here, Geoffrey," began the contractor's brother, and one glance at the speaker was sufficient for Thurston, who stopped him. " Are you coming to torment me about that con- founded thing? Give it to me at once," he said. Be Bnatched the drawing from Savine's hand, tore it into fragments, and stamped them into the mould. "Now that's done with at la.-< ! " he said. "No," was the answer. "There's no saying where a THE BURSTING OF THE SLUICE 193 thing like this will end, if public mischief-makers get hold of it. You have your future, which means your profes- sional reputation, to think of. In all human probability my poor brother can't last very long, and this may handi- cap you for years. I cannot " " Damn my professional reputation ! Can't you believe your ears? " Geoffrey broke in. " I'm not blind yet, and would sooner trust my eyes," was the dry answer. " Nobody shall persuade me that I don't know my own brother's figures. There are limits, Geoffrey, and neither Helen nor I would hold our peace about this." " Listen to me ! " Geoffrey's face was as hard as flint. " I see I can't bluff you as easily as the Government man, but I give you fair warning that if you attempt to make use of your suspicions I'll find means of checkmating you. Just supposing you're not mistaken, a young man with any grit in him could live down a dozen similar blunders, and, if he couldn't, what is my confounded per- sonal credit in comparison with what 3'our brother has done for me and my promise to Miss Savine? So far as I can accomplish it, Julius Savine shall honorably wind up a successful career, and if you either reopen the sub- ject or tell his daughter about the drawing, there will be war between you and me. That is the last word I have to say." " I wonder if Helen knows the grit there is in that man," pondered Savine, when, seeing all protests were useless, he turned away, divided between compunction and gratitude. Neither he nor the lawyer succeeded in find- ing out how the drawing fell into hostile hands, while, if Geoffrey had his suspicions, he decided that it might be better not to follow them up. CHAPTEE XIX THE ABDUCTION OF BLACK CHRISTY There were weighty reasons why Christy Black, whose comrades reversed his name and called him Black Christy instead, remained in Thurston's camp as long as he did. Although a good mechanic, he was by no means fond of manual labor, and he had discovered that profitable occu- pations were open to an enterprising and not over-scrupu- lous man. On the memorable night when Thurston fished him out of the river, his rescuer had made it plain that he must earn the liberal wages that were promised to him. As a matter of fact, Black had made the most of his op- portunities, and in doing so had brought himself under the ban of the law during an altercation over a disputed mineral claim. Black, who then called himself by another name, dis- appeared before an inquiry as to how the body of one of the owners of the claim came into a neighboring river. Only one comrade, and a mine-floating speculator, who stood behind the humbler disputants, knew or guessed at the events which led up the fatality. The comrade shortly afterwards vanished, too, but the richer man, who had connived at Black's disappearance, kept a close hand on him, forcing him as the price of freedom to act as cat's-paw in risky operations, until Black, tired of tyranny, had been glad to tell Thurston part of the truth and to accept his protection. The man from whose grip he hoped he had escaped was the one who had helped Leslie out of a difficulty. ack Christy found, however, that a life of virtuous toil grew distinctly monotonous, and one morning, when Mattawa Tom's vigilance was slack, he departed in search 194 THE ABDUCTION OF BLACK CHRISTY 195 of diversion in the settlement of Red Pine, which lay- beyond the range. He found congenial society there, and, unfortunately for himself, went on with a boon companion next morning to a larger settlement beside the railroad track. He intended to complete the orgie there, and then to return to camp. Accordingly it hap- pened that, when afternoon was drawing towards a close, he sat under the veranda of a rickety wooden saloon, hurling drowsy encouragement at the freighter who was loading rock-boring tools into a big wagon. He won- dered how far his remaining dollar would go towards assuaging a thirst which steadily increased, and two men, who leaned against the wagon, chuckled as they watched him. The hands of one of the men were busy about the brass cap which decorated the hub of the wheel, but neither Black nor the teamster noticed this fact. Black had seen one of the men before, for the two had loafed about the district, ostensibly prospecting for minerals, and had twice visited Thurston's camp. It was a pity Black had absorbed sufficient alcohol to confuse his memory, for when the men strolled towards him he might have recognized the one whose hat was drawn well down. As it was, he greeted them affably. " Nice weather for picnicking in the woods. Not found that galena yet? I guess somebody in the city is paying ) r ou by the week," he observed jocosely. " That's about the size of it ! " The speaker laughed. " But we've pretty well found what we wanted, and we're pulling out with the Pacific express. There don't seem very much left in your glass. Anything the matter with filling it up with me ? " " I'm not proud," was the answer. " I'm open to drink with any man who'll set them up for me." When the prospector called the bar-tender, Black proceeded to prove his willingness to be " treated." Nothing moved in the unpaved street of the sleepy settlement, when the slow-footed oxen and lurching wagon 196 THURSTON OF ORCHARD VALLEY had lumbered away. The sun beat down upon it piti- lessly, and the drowsy scent of cedars mingled with the odors of baking dust which eddied in little spirals and got into the loungers' throats. The bar-tender was liberal with his ice, however, and Black became confidential. When he had assured them of his undying friendship, one of the prospectors asked : " What's a smart man like you muling rocks around in a river-bed for, anyway? Can't you strike nothing better down to the cities ? " " No," declared Black, thickly. " Couldn't strike a job nohow when I left them. British Columbia played out — and I had no money to take me to California." " Well," said the prospector, winking at his comrade, "there is something we might put you on to. The first question is, what kin you do ? " According to Black's not over-coherent answer, there was little he could not do excellently. After he had enumerated his capabilities, the other man said: " I guess that's sufficient. Come right back with us to 'Frisco and we'll have a few off days before we start you. This is no country for a live man, anyway." Black nodded sagaciously and tried hard to think. He was afraid of Thurston, but more so of the other man connected with the Enterprise Company. In San Fran- cisco he would be beyond the reach of either, and the city offered many delights to a person of his tastes with somebody else willing to pay expenses. " I'll come," he promised thickly. " So long as you've got the dollars I'll go right round the earth with either of you." '•