CHAPTER XXXIII
MISS DERINGHAM'S CONFESSION
Several weeks had passed since Deringham's funeral when one evening
Forel, sitting alone on his verandah, saw Alton coming up the pathway.
His face was once more bronzed by wind and sun, but it had not wholly
lost the sombreness Forel had noticed when he had last seen him in
Vancouver.
"I'm glad to see you, Forel, for I've just come in from Victoria, and there's a good deal I want to know," he said.
"You generally do," and Forel became suddenly grave. "You heard what happened to your kinsman?"
"Yes," said Alton. "It was some time before I got your letter. I was back up there at the mine, you know. Very sudden, wasn't it?"
Forel nodded. "Still, it was not altogether astonishing. The doctor had warned him a few days before it happened that any unusual exertion or excitement might prove perilous."
"And, so far as you know, was there anything of that kind?"
Ford watched his companion closely as he answered:
"I have told nobody else, but Hallam called here and saw him shortly before it happened."
Alton's face remained impassive, but his voice was not quite in accordance with it as he said, "The police have no word of him?"
Forel smiled. "As there cannot well be a prosecution without a prisoner they are somewhat reticent. Still, Hallam caught the Sound steamer, and late that night one of the officers came round here, while I was eventually able to glean a few details. The steamer had called at one or two ports before they got the wires, and while the American police might have shadowed him, you cannot arrest a Canadian across the frontier until you get your papers through. By the time that was done there was no trace of Hallam. Still, I'm a little puzzled, because he seems to have cleared out at a moment's notice, and it's difficult to see who could have warned him."
Forel fancied that Alton seemed relieved. "He has gone, anyway," he said. "Still, if he had only time to catch the steamer the banks would be closed, and he couldn't go very far without dollars. They generally want two signatures to a cheque in a concern like his."
Forel looked Alton steadily in the face. "I happen to know that he took a good big cheque with him, and it was negotiated in Tacoma," he said. "It has transpired since that his partner was away that day, and his cheque-book not available."
Alton's eyes closed a trifle, and though he made no other sign Forel saw that the shot had reached its mark. "Then," he said slowly, "I would rather you didn't mention it. Hallam is scarcely likely to venture back again."
"No," said Forel. "There were, I fancy, things his partners didn't know, but when he had gone they commenced inquiring, and it is currently believed that what they discovered slightly astonished them. Then there was an indignation meeting of the Tyee shareholders and talk about prosecuting the accountant."
There was relief in Alton's face, which softened suddenly as he said,
"And how is Miss Deringham?"
Forel smiled. "I fancied you were about to ask that question first," he said. "The girl seemed to take it very hard, and at last I sent my wife and her away up to the hotel in the Rockies. Hettie has persuaded her to stay on here, and I expect them home very shortly."
"But she would be wanted at Carnaby?" said Alton.
"Well," said Forel, once more watching him, "I believe the lawyers wrote for her, but she seems to have a horror of the place, and Hettie dare scarcely mention it to her. I'll tell you nothing more until you've had dinner."
Forel adhered to his resolution, and it was more than an hour later when he returned to the subject as they sat, cigar in hand, on the verandah, watching the lights of the vessels blink across the inlet. "We are going to keep Miss Deringham as long as we can," he said. "She has no kinsfolk she thinks much of in England, and Hettie is very fond of her. Did I tell you that Thorne called upon her?"
"No," said Alton, with a curious vibration in his voice. "Well," said Forel, "I meant to. No doubt he felt it his duty, but Hettie seemed to fancy there was something else. Still, I think she was mistaken, because he said good-bye to us when he went away, and we heard since that he had sailed for another station."
"He was a good man," said Alton gravely.
Forel glanced at him curiously. "Women are subject to such fancies, and Hettie had another once," he said. "In fact, I think she was quite sorry when it apparently came to nothing."
Alton laughed mirthlessly. "Wasn't it a trifle foolish of Mrs. Forel? Miss Deringham is a lady of position in the old country, and I a bush rancher, standing on the brink of ruin, and a cripple."
"Of course," said Forel, "you know best. Still, I can't help fancying you are unduly proud of your affliction, because it is scarcely perceptible to other people, while Miss Deringham has not a great deal to maintain her position with. You see the death duties are heavy in the old country, and from the letters she has shown me Deringham appears to have involved the estate considerably during his stewardship."
Alton laid down his cigar. "It seems to me that we are taking a liberty in discussing Miss Deringham's affairs," he said dryly.
"Well," said Forel, with a little smile, "you have a good deal to tell me."
Alton nodded. "I went back to the mine after Damer's death," he said. "Got there just before sun up, and we had our stakes in before Hallam's men quite realized what we were after. Of course there was a circus, but we had expected it and fixed things accordingly. Hallam's men went out and I came down to see the Crown people in Victoria. Two or three of the others, however, called on the nearest recorder's at the same time as me. We came down in the same cars, you see."
"Have we any chance at all?" said Forel.
Alton smiled dryly. "I left Okanagan and Seaforth with enough of the boys to hold the claim sitting tight," he said. "Talked to the chiefs in Victoria, and showed them Damer's testimony. They told me that nobody had a patent, and that everything that had been done was informal, and because they would probably have to submit the case to Ottawa it would take time for them to come to a decision. And now for Somasco. The new mill's finished, but it has got to live on the local demand, and just now there isn't any. We're half through with the desiccatory, but as it seems the Government will not make us roads, the California people with their cheap transport will beat us easily. I've got thirty men chopping out a new trail one could haul a loaded wagon on, and don't quite know how to pay them. We've raised a piece of the cannery, but for want of dollars don't go on, and, to put it straight, unless that railroad comes in, Somasco will be busted when the loans come due."
"Well," said Forel, "I've some news for you. One of my clients who seems to think a good deal of the future of Somasco offers dollars enough to help you considerably—in fact, half as much again as you were asking for lately."
Alton's face brightened, and then grew clouded again. "The other folks have security, and as I don't know that we have anything we could offer this one, I'm not sure it would be square," he said.
"The dollars," said Forel, "are now in my hands, and I fancy that if you will go through the books with me tomorrow we can find something that would figure as security. In fact, the lender left me a tolerably wide discretion and would almost as soon I sank the dollars to take a share of the profits as put them out on loan."
Alton appeared astonished. "Considering our present credit, that is somewhat curious."
"There it is, anyway," said Forel, smiling. "There are, it seems, still people who believe in Somasco and you, but we'll see what we can fix up to-morrow."
Alton stood up and straightened himself to his full height, while his voice trembled a little as he said, "Then I think whoever it is is going to save us yet."
Forel made no answer, but he fancied that his client would have been contented had she seen how Alton seemed to shake off the grim hopelessness that had been too apparent through all his resolution.
It was with a lighter heart that Alton went away, and having little leisure or inclination for company, he did not go back to his friend's house until the evening of Mrs. Forel's return. The sun had dipped behind the pines when he reached it, and Forel and his wife sat with Alice Deringham upon the verandah, for which the girl was grateful, because the presence of others rendered their conventional greetings easier, and she at once shrank from and desired an interview with Alton alone. By and by it, however, happened that Forel, who may have received a warning from his wife, remembered that he had some business to attend to, while Mrs. Forel went away, as she explained, to instruct the Chinese cook, and Alice Deringham was left face to face with a task that now appeared almost impossible. She could not commence it directly.
"And now I want you to tell me all about Somasco," she said.
Alton leaned with his back against a pillar looking down on her, and the girl, who lay in a long chair, wished that she had chosen a position where the light did not fall so directly upon her. That was in one respect curious, because she had taken considerable pains with her toilet, and knew that the sweeping lines of the long black dress became her. Its sombreness also emphasized the ivory whiteness of her neck and hands, while the pallor and weariness of her face awoke a tenderness that was far more than pity in the man. He caught the glint of the lustrous red-gold hair as she moved her head a trifle, and then turned his eyes away with a little restless movement that did not escape his companion.
"We may hold the mine after all," he said.
"Yes?" said Alice Deringham, with an evident eagerness which puzzled him. "That is very good news. And your other difficulties? You see, I made Mr. Forel talk about them occasionally."
The interest that this implied was not lost upon the man, but he glanced away again.
"They are less than they were," he said gravely. "Still, I don't know that you would care to hear about these things."
"That is not very friendly," said Alice Deringham, with a little smile.
Alton glanced down at her in swift surprise, and then his face became a mask again. "Well," he said slowly, "when I think we would have been beaten without it, somebody lent us enough dollars to carry us through. It sounds very simple, but it has made a new man of me. To have dragged down all the men who trusted me would have hurt me horribly."
"And this loan or whatever it is will prevent that happening? It was opportune?"
"Yes," and a little glow came into Alton's eyes. "It was very opportune."
"You were not so laconic at the ranch," said the girl, who smiled at him. "Once upon a time you would tell me all about your plans."
The man seemed to quiver as he met her gaze, and then slowly straightened himself. "I have been taught a good deal since then and know what an egotistical fool I was," he said. "Still, this loan makes too great a difference to me to be expressed in words. You can scarcely understand—I think no woman could—what it is to feel utterly beaten."
"Still," said Alice Deringham, with a little flash in her eyes, "I don't think you ever quite felt that, and now you will have everything you hoped for again?"
Alton's fingers closed suddenly as he looked down on the gleaming hair and whiteness of the neck beneath it, for the girl's face had been turned from him. "No," he said slowly. "I wanted so much, you see."
"And yet you once seemed to think there was nothing impossible to the man who was resolute enough—and I fancied you were right," said the girl. "Still, the things one used to admire occasionally lose their value."
She glanced at him a moment, and was afraid to look again. The man's face was very grim, but she had seen what was in his eyes, and waited almost breathless, until he stooped and laid his hand upon her shoulder.
"Will you look up and tell me that again?" he said.
Alice Deringham was never quite sure whether she looked up or not, but she felt her cheeks glowing and the man's hand tighten on her shoulder. "I—I can't," she said.
Perhaps her voice betrayed her, for Alton had evidently flung restraint to the winds. "Then," he said, with the quietness which she knew was most often a mask for his vehemence, "I have something to tell you."
It cost Alice Deringham an effort she remembered all her life, but she shook off his grasp, and stopped him with a little imperious gesture. "No," she said, "you must listen. Go back to the rail."
Alton stood a moment irresolute, the veins on his forehead swollen and passion in his eyes. Then he stretched out his hand with a little laugh, and Miss Deringham knew that unless she used all her strength that tale would never be told. She rose up, and stood looking at him, very statuesque and cold now in the long trailing dress. Alton let his hand drop and bent his head.
"I am only a bushman, and I am sorry," he said. "Now you will sit down again."
It was evident that he had put a stern restraint upon himself, but the girl knew that he would listen.
"I have a confession to make," she said quietly. "You will remember the sale of Townshead's ranch, but you do not know I kept back the message Miss Townshead sent you."
Alton laughed a little. "Nothing would convince me of it. The man who should have brought it was not sober. He told me himself."
Alice Deringham had not anticipated this, and the man's unwavering faith in her was worse to bear than his anger would have been. "Still, the message was plain, and I remembered it," she said.
Alton made a little gesture of impatience. "No," he said resolutely, "you did not, and if you had done you would have had a reason that would have made it right."
The girl sat silent a few moments, her thoughts in confusion, almost angry with the man for his loyalty. "But there is more. You were going back into the ranges to relocate the mine—and I knew that it would cost you a great deal when I sent the note that stopped you."
The bronze faded suddenly in the man's face, and there was a dew upon his forehead, while the girl felt very faint and cold as she realized how he would feel the blow. Yet she could not spare either herself or him, and she struck while she had the courage left.
"I knew you would risk everything if I asked you to, and that was why I sent the note. I wanted to hurt you."
Alton's hand tightened upon the balustrade, and then turning slowly he paced along the verandah, while Alice Deringham choked back a sob as she noticed that now his steps were uneven. She had accomplished the task that was laid upon her, and it only remained for her to keep silence and hide her suffering. In another moment he would descend the verandah stairway and she would never see him again. Alton, however, went past the stairway as though he did not see it, moving clumsily, with a limp that pained the girl more than his face had done. Then he turned and she felt her heart beat faster, for there was a change in him when he came back again. He stopped and stood still close by her.
"You must try to forgive me—but it hurt," he said.
Alice Deringham turned her face away from him, and for a moment wonder almost drove all other emotion out of her.
"I—I don't understand. It was I who did that horrible thing."
"Then," said Alton very gravely, "you were driven to it. My dear, you could of your own will do no wrong."
Again his great faith in her brought the blood to the white face of the girl, and her humiliation almost overwhelmed her. Still, she was determined that he should know all, and she struck again.
"No," she said, with a cold incisiveness, though her voice was faint and strained. "I did it because I hated you—and longed for any means of punishing you."
Alton seemed to shiver, but his eyes were fixed on her steadily, and next moment he had laid his hand upon her shoulder and forced her to look up at him.
"Then we will forget it together," he said. "There was a mistake somewhere—for I do not think you could have hated me."
Alice Deringham made a last struggle; it was a very bitter one, for she realized the all-sufficiency of the love that would believe no evil. "It is impossible, and it will always be," she said. "Will you not see what I am, and how very different that is from what you think of me?"
Alton smiled gravely. "My dear, I want you as you are. How could it make a difference whether you had done right or wrong—and I shall still hold you blameless when I know everything."
Passion was once more kindling in his eyes, and Alice Deringham, who saw it, rose stiffly upright, holding on to her last strength. Her face was very weary, but there was something in her eyes which restrained the man.
"I can bear no more," she said, with a downward glance at the long black dress. "Have you forgotten? You have shown me what a man can rise to, Harry Alton, but I will not wrong you further by marrying you. Now you must say nothing, but out of pity for me go away."
The appeal was effective, for Alton bent his head. "I am going—but there is nothing impossible, and I will come back," he said, and moved slowly towards the stairway.
Alice Deringham watched him cross the garden, and then the last vestige of the resolution that had sustained her melted, and she went very wearily into the house, where, as it happened, Mrs. Forel was waiting for her. The elder lady asked no questions, for she saw her face, but drew the girl very gently down beside her.
"I am sorry, my dear," she said.
Alice Deringham let her head sink down upon her companion's shoulder and sobbed aloud.
"There can be very few men like Harry Alton," she said disjointedly.
"And because I could not abuse his goodness I sent him away."
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE CONSUMMATION
It was hot outside in the noisy streets, but the Somasco Consolidated offices were quiet and cool when Alton entertained two of his friends there one afternoon. There is no special sanctity attached to a place of business in the West, and nobody who knew Alton would have been astonished to find plates of fruit upon the papers which littered his table, and a spirit lamp burning on the big empty stove. A very winsome young lady also sat in a lounge-chair, and Forel close by glanced at her with a most unbusinesslike twinkle in his eyes. Seaforth had been married recently, and his wife had called in to see, so she told Alton, that he was not working him too hard.
"You will give Mrs. Charley some tea," said Alton. "Your husband, madam, has been brought up well, but there was a time when I had real trouble in teaching him. Forel, you'll find some ice and soda yonder as well as the other things."
Nellie Seaforth laughed a little as she thrust the cup away. "No," she said; "I know where that tea comes from, and I would sooner have some ice and soda with out the other things. Have the strawberries gone up, Harry?"
Alton nodded. "That's a fact, and I am very glad," he said. "You see, we are sending out about a ton of them every day, and there are none to equal ours in the Dominion. Still, if Charley wasn't so lazy he'd give you some. Can't you find that ice, Forel? There was a big lump yesterday."
"That is quite possible," said Forel dryly, "but it has gone, and it is apparently running out of your plans and estimates now."
"Then you will have to fall back upon Horton's tea," said Alton, smiling. "Nobody knows where he gets it from except that it isn't China, but he seems to think it's my duty to buy it from him, and the rasp of it brings the bush back to me. Makes one smell the cedars, and see the lake flashing, and I'm very tired of the city."
Mrs. Seaforth laughed as she glanced at the bottles Forel was pitching out of a box, for as yet he had not found one with anything in it.
"Have you a mineral water factory at Somasco, too?" she said.
"Not yet," said Alton gravely. "But we may have by and by, though some of my partners would have more use for a distillery. We're going to have everything that will pay, but we've been too busy making roads lately."
Forel stood up, looking a little more thoughtful. "You are, at any rate, running up a confoundedly long bill," he said. "You will get very few new dresses, Mrs. Seaforth, unless you make your husband stop him. Of course you heard nothing, Alton, from the roads and trails?"
Alton laughed softly. "That's where you're wrong. I wrote them wanting to know if they thought it my duty to open up the country for them, and I got a letter that the affair is receiving consideration. If the bush country members can get the new appropriation through, the surveyor's going up to look at what we've done."
"Effrontery is the thing that pays," said Forel. "But have you heard from Tom?"
Alton's face grew a trifle graver. "He and more of the boys are sitting on the claim, and there's another crowd camped down with stakes ready right in front of him. He tells me he finds it hard to keep his hands off them, and I'd have gone up only that I'm waiting for the Crown folks' decision."
"I think they can only declare the claim open," said Forel, "and that being so they couldn't well send you an intimation before they made the fact public."
Nobody said anything for a little. Forel had told them nothing new, and they could guess at the suspense Alton had been enduring, for the decision of the Crown authorities meant a good deal to all of them. If the claim were declared open, the first man to restake it and get in his papers could take possession.
"It would be dreadful if Harry lost it," said Mrs. Seaforth. "Still, I don't think he will."
Alton laughed a little. "I don't mean to if I can help it," he said. "I've had Thomson prospecting for the fastest road down, and he has found one that is rideable."
Forel nodded. "That reminds," he said. "Hettie wants to get away from the city, and I thought of taking her and Miss Deringham up to Somasco. You will lend us the house for a week or two?"
"Of course," said Alton. "Go as soon as it's possible. I want a man with a business grip up there. My head will scarcely hold all the things I've been trying to cram into it lately."
Mrs. Seaforth glanced at him with a little smile of sympathy, for although the Somasco affairs looked a little more promising now, Alton had been doing the work of several men, and the strain had told on him. She also remembered her husband's sleepless nights.
"We shall all be glad when the anxiety is over, but one can't help thinking that you men have the best of it now and then," she said. "At least you can work—while we can only sit still."
Forel smiled upon her. "Well," he said, without reflection, "there is one woman who has done a good deal for Somasco."
He saw his blunder next moment, for Alton rose up suddenly. "I would like to hear that again," he said.
Forel was manifestly uncomfortable, but he glanced towards Mrs.
Seaforth as he said, "I think Charley will back me up."
"Of course," said Seaforth, whose tone, however, chiefly expressed bewilderment; but Alton made a little forceful gesture.
"Pshaw!" he said. "You're fooling, Forel, and you would never disclose who your client was that lent us the money."
"No," said Forel resolutely. "Nor do I mean to. Sit down again,
Harry, and don't get fancying things."
Alton moved a pace forward with a dark flush in his face. "Forel," he said, "where did all those dollars come from?"
Forel looked almost abject, and in his desperation glanced towards
Nellie Seaforth.
"I think you had better tell him now," she said.
"You know, too?" said Forel.
Nellie Seaforth smiled a little. "I think I knew all along," she said.
"Still, Charley didn't. He is, of course, a man."
"Then one of you has got to tell me," said Alton.
Nellie Seaforth raised her hand with a little imperious gesture. "As you know half of it I think you had better hear it all," she said. "Well, if I had been Miss Deringham I would have taken that way of giving you back Carnaby. It is possible to raise money on an estate in the old country."
There was no need of further questions, for the answer was written on
Forel's flushed face, and Alton sat down with his lips firmly set.
Then there was an awkward silence until he spoke again.
"And I cannot return it. Every dollar has been sunk in the mills and roads except what we took up the first loan with."
Nellie Seaforth nodded with a pretty gravity, for the bond between them all was stronger than friendship usually is.
"No," she said, "and I can't help thinking that it is just as well. One cannot shirk his responsibilities, Harry, and you are an Alton—of Carnaby. You see, nobody could take your inheritance from you, nor, though you did your best, could you give it away, and there is, I fancy, only one meaning to that. Fate is too strong for you. You will redeem Carnaby again, go over there, and be—what you were born to be."
Alton's face was once more flushed, and the girl fancied his fingers quivered a little, but while he sat silent there was a tapping at the door and an urchin flung a journal into the room.
"Colonist," he said, and vanished suddenly.
Forel, who appeared glad of the diversion, picked up the paper, and then stood up. "News at last," he said excitedly. "I fancied we would have had it first, but the news agency fellows have beaten us, Harry; it's more than probable they're going to rush the railroad through."
Alton's eyes glittered. "Great news, but it will keep," he said. "No, don't worry over any more of it. Look at the notices."
Forel folded back the sheet. Then it rustled in his hand, and his voice shook as he read disjointedly: "Vacant Crown lands. To all it may concern. Mineral claim on left bank headwaters Somasco River in unsurveyed territory, frontage declared to be——"
"Give it to me, or get on," Alton said hoarsely.
The paper was shaking visibly. "Is declared to be on or after 12 P.M. on the date undermentioned eligible for relocation," and Forel ended with a little gasp, "You have lost it, Harry."
Alton was on his feet by this time and snatching out his watch. "No, by the Lord!" he said. "I've still rather a better chance than most other men. Head straight for the freight traffic man, Charley, and tell him I'm going up with the fast Atlantic freight they're sending our empty cars back on. Forel, run across and send in your stenographer. There are lots of things I've got to do, and the freight will be going out in an hour or so."
Nellie Seaforth laughed a little. "Then Mr. Forel will not have time, and there's another woman anxious to do a little for Somasco. Give me a pencil, Harry, and begin right away."
Alton only flung her a grateful glance, and dictated rapidly, until Seaforth appeared in the doorway flushed with haste, when shouting his thanks after him he ran down the stairway.
Nellie Seaforth laughed a little. "Good fortune go with him. That is Alton—of Somasco," she said. "I wonder whether he will remember to put on his hat."
"I don't think it's likely," said her husband. "Nellie, I can't help wondering if you were right just now."
Mrs. Seaforth smiled at him curiously. "It was right I did," she said. "Possibly the distinction is too fine for you, but I think the future will justify me."
Then she drew off her gloves, and endeavoured to remember only that she had been considered a capable business lady.
Forel went up to Somasco next day, and one afternoon sat with his wife and Miss Deringham upon the verandah of Horton's hotel. Horton himself was pacing up and down, and a group of bronzed bush ranchers stood in the dust below. They spoke more rapidly than was usual with them, their movements were curiously restless for impassive men, and their eyes were fixed upon the shadowy trail that led down the valley beneath the sombre pines. The afternoon was still, and a drowsy resinous fragrance hung heavily about the hotel. There was no sound but the low voices, and the murmur of sliding water in the distance.
Alice Deringham was pale and very quiet, though there was an intentness in her eyes, and when Horton stopped close by her she looked at him.
"They have heard nothing yet?" she said.
"No," said the storekeeper. "Still, some of them should have been here by now."
The little nervous tremor in his voice did not escape the girl, and though it had all been explained to her before, she said, "Then you expect more than Mr. Alton?"
"Well," said Horton, who seemed glad to find an outlet in speech, "I don't quite know. You see there was a man brought a wire in before Harry got through, and once the claim was posted vacant anybody could stake it. There's a holy crowd of jumpers hanging round the mine, and because there'd be such a circus nobody could be sure who'd got his pegs in first, the Crown people would probably listen to the man who got through and recorded. Oh, yes, they'll be pounding down the trail as if the devil was after them now, but there's none of them got the relays of horses we've fixed up for Harry."
Horton moved away, and the girl sat still listening, while Mrs. Forel stirred nervously, and her husband apparently found it necessary to light his cigar again every now and then. The voices had died away, and there was no sound but the faint song of water and the patter of restless feet. How long the silence continued Alice Deringham did not know, but a quiver went through her as a hoarse shout rose up, "They're coming!"
Then there was silence again, and she watched a bronzed man rubbing down a great black horse whose blood had not come from a Cayuse pedigree until a faint drumming grew louder down the trail. It swelled into a sharp staccato, and the murmurs commenced again. "Two of them. Another man behind. Riding like brimstone. Can you see them yet?"
The drumming sound sank, and rose again in a confused roar as the horsemen crossed a wooden bridge while Alice Deringham stood up, when once more the voices rose stridently.
"One of the jumpers first. Harry's coming along behind. Cayuse played out. Lord, how they're riding!"
Then lips were set tight, and steady eyes blazed, as a man grimed with sweat and dust who reeled in his saddle swept out from the forest on a jaded horse. Most of those who watched him had a heavy stake in that race, for it was with Alton's prosperity they must stand or fall; but the bushman's code of honour is as high as it is simple, and they sprang aside to give the rider a free passage. The man blinked at them in a curious dazed fashion, as he rode on, the dust whirling behind him and the lather dripping tinged with red from the horse's whitened sides.
Still, the drumming behind grew louder, and he had scarcely sunk into the shadows when Alton, stripped to shirt and trousers, rode in. He, too, swayed in the saddle, and his face was foul with dust, but it was firmly set, and there was a glint in his eyes, while as he swept out of the shadow of the pines two men led the horse out into the trail. He reined his beast in upon its haunches, swung himself down, thrust aside the pitcher somebody tendered him, and with a swing that rent the white shirt was once more in the saddle. Then there was a scattering of the crowd and a shouting broke out.
"You'll have him in a league, Harry. Another horse ready at Thomson's ranch."
Alice Deringham held her breath as, while a third beat of hoofs grew louder behind, Alton gathered up the bridle and drove his heels home. The horse, frightened by the clamour, reared almost upright and then backed across the trail, while the girl wondered with a tense anxiety whether the man would look up. Then for just a second he turned his head, and saw her standing on the verandah with a blaze in her cheeks and a dimness in her eyes.
"Off with you, Harry, and remember you're riding for all of us and
Somasco," cried somebody.
[Illustration: "Remember you're riding for all of us and Somasco," cried somebody.]
Alton had the beast's head up the trail now, but as he sent his heels home he swung up his right hand, and the girl smiled down on him bravely out of misty eyes.
"And for Carnaby," he cried. "I can't be beaten."
Then the horse shot forward, and he was away, his torn shirt fluttering as the wind rushed past, while Alice Deringham hastened to the end of the verandah with Forel to see the last of him just as another man rode in at a floundering gallop.
The trail led straight beneath the pines, and her heart throbbed painfully while she watched the second rider closing with the one in front of him, until the two figures became blurred before her eyes, and she turned suddenly cold.
"He's fouling him," cried somebody, and a roar of execrations went up. "Both of them for the same company. The condemned jumper's right across the trail."
There was silence once more, and the two objects seemed to rush together, then another roar went up.
"Down. Oh, yes, the jumper's down. Harry rode straight into him—the fool might have known his horse was blown. The other one's used up. Somasco's leading clear again."
Alice Deringham was trembling visibly, and knew that Mrs. Forel's eyes were upon her, but that did not seem to count at all. She could see a figure standing over a fallen horse up the trail, while another that had already left it far behind was sinking into the shadow of the pines. The jumper was beaten, but Alton was riding still—for Somasco and Carnaby—with a fresh horse beneath him.
Then she turned to Mrs. Forel with a softness in her eyes which somewhat astonished the elder lady.
"I should like to go back to Somasco now," she said. "I am a little tired, and I know that he will win."
A wagon was awaiting them, and Forel several times came near overturning it in his excitement as he drove them home to the ranch.
It was a week later when one evening the leading inhabitants of the district assembled in Somasco ranch. Those who were married had brought their wives with them, and the cook and Mrs. Margery had toiled since morning to set out the table in a fashion befitting the occasion, for the chief roads and trails surveyor and a member of the Provincial Government were to be entertained that evening.
The sombre green of cedar-sprays relieved the red-veined panelling, there were flowers and early fruits upon the table, and the fragrance of the firs came in through the open windows, while when the bronzed men filed in there was expectancy in their steady eyes. Several of them had ridden here and there with the surveyor all that day, and he had expressed grave approval of all they had shown him. Once, too, he appeared a trifle astonished when pointed out the new road they had driven under Alton's guidance along the mountain side. It would reduce the distance to the settlement several miles, but it had cost many dollars and weeks of perilous toil, while the surveyor had only stated that it was well done, and the men of Somasco had as yet no answer to the important question whether the Government would complete what remained unfinished or in any way recompense them.
Supper was served with as much ceremony as was possible at Somasco, but the meal was a somewhat silent one. The ranchers were a trifle anxious while the surveyor spoke most to Alice Deringham, who sat next him near the head of the table, and the member of the Government divided his observations between the wife of a big axeman and Mrs. Forel. All of those present knew that events of great importance to them were happening in the city, but save for a brief telegram from Alton stating that he had been allowed to record the mine and would return in a day or two they had no authentic news.
It was almost a relief when the meal was over, and there was a sudden hush of attention as the surveyor rose up. Every eye was turned upon the grave-faced gentleman at the head of the table.
"I have spent a good many years building roads and bridges in various parts of the Dominion, and have never seen better work than you have shown me to-day," he said. "Now I don't quite know if you expected me to talk business on this occasion, but I'm going out early to-morrow, and I fancy your good ladies are as anxious as you are about the welfare of Somasco."
A woman with hard brown hands turned in her chair.
"Oh, yes," she said. "We are that, anyway, and because we're most of us working twelve hours every day just for the right to live, we've sent out our men to make the roads that are to bring the dollars that will make things easier in. The Government don't help us, we're doing the work ourselves, and we'll go out, too, with the drill and shovel if the men are beaten."
There was a deprecatory murmur that had yet in it grim approval, and the surveyor smiled a little.
"That, I think, is the spirit which is going to make this province the greatest in the Dominion," he said. "Well, I may tell you that I was sent up here with a tolerably wide discretion, and after seeing the rock cutting by the lake I'm going to use it now. Nothing better has been done in the province, and the man who planned it for you had courage as well as genius. It is a most daring and successful piece of engineering."
A little flush crept into the bronzed faces, and Mrs. Forel noticed the brightness in Alice Deringham's eyes, for the man who had spoken was a famous engineer.
"Well," he said gravely, "we are going to take over that road—as from the beginning—and finish it for you. That is, you will be paid by the province for every day you spent upon it, and I leave it to the man who commenced it to see the work through. His pay orders will be honoured, and I should very much like to see and compliment him."
A murmur ran along the table, for the Government pay is good and a road-making grant a coveted boon in each lonely valley, whose inhabitants are usually glad to keep the work in their own hands.
"Boys," said somebody, "this is what comes of trusting Harry."
It was a simple speech, but the second murmur which followed it and the confidence in the bronzed faces stirred Alice Deringham. She had been taught a little about these silent men, and knew the value of their testimony.
The surveyor sat down, and the member stood up. "I can add a little, gentlemen," he said. "Roads are always useful, and we'll give you a good one, and, if my word goes far enough, a grant to cut across trails with and improve your bridges, but you're going to have a better one than any you can build."
He stopped a moment, and there was not a sound in the room. The men sat still as statues, the women drew in their breath, and the song of the river came in through the windows in slow pulsations. Every eye was on the speaker, and now and then a hard brown hand quivered a little, but in the midst of their suspense there was no man weak enough to ask a premature question.
The surveyor smiled a little. "Gentlemen," he said slowly, "you have all heard conflicting rumours, but I have had a message, and you can take it as a fact that you will have the steel road very shortly."
This time there was a roar that shook the rafters, and a rattle of flung-back chairs as the men rose to their feet. They had toiled and hoped for this, holding on with grim endurance when hope had almost gone, and now all that they had looked for was to be given them. There was no man present who did not know that his ranch was worth treble what it had been a few days ago, or woman who could not see that henceforward there need be no more ceaseless drudgery. One, indeed, laughed inanely, clasping her hardened hands, and a dimness crept into eyes, more than one pair of eyes, from which the care that had long lurked there had vanished suddenly.
Then a man swung up a brimming glass. "Boys," he said, a trifle hoarsely, "it's only cider this time, but you can drink what I'm going to give you in champagne when the railroad's through. Here's the man who stood right with us through everything, the man who beat off Hallam, and brought the railroad in."
There was a jingle of glasses, and the surveyor and the member stood up with the rest, while, for the men had let themselves go at last, a great shout rang out, "Harry Alton, Alton of Somasco."
Then there was silence, and while the men stood with flushed faces too stirred as yet to remember that they had done an unusual thing, Seaforth, who had come up on some business from Vancouver with his wife, moved out a little from the rest.
"Boys," he said, and his voice shook a little, "I would have tried to thank you on behalf of the best comrade you or I ever had, only that I fancy he will be here in a minute to answer for himself."
He stopped abruptly, and through the silence that followed all heard a drumming that might have been made by the hoofs of a galloping horse, and Mrs. Forel wondered as she glanced at the girl opposite her across the table. Alice Deringham had like the rest been stirred out of her reticence, and now she seemed almost transfigured with the warm flush in her cheeks and the pride discernible through the softness in her eyes.
The beat of hoofs stopped presently, and a man came hastily through the verandah. Alice Deringham could not see him, but the flush in her cheeks grew deeper, for she knew that slightly uneven step. Then there was a move towards the door, and she sat almost alone at the head of the table, knowing that somebody was shouldering his way through those who thronged about him in her direction. Still she could not look until a man dropped into the vacant chair beside her. Then she saw that Alton was glancing down at her with a question in his face.
"You are pleased that we have won?" he said.
"Yes," said the girl, who felt that speech had its limits. "I knew you would."
Alton seemed to sigh with a great contentment. "Then," he said quietly, "if it was only to hear that I would begin it all again."
He had no opportunity for further speech. There were questions to be asked and answers given, while it was some hours later and most of the guests had departed when he found Alice Deringham alone upon the verandah. The moon hung over the cedars on a black hillside, the lake flung back its radiance steelily, and the stillness was made musical by the sound of falling water. Alton had come out from the presence of the surveyor with a glint of triumph in his eyes.
"There is only one thing wanting to make this the greatest day of my life, but without it all the rest counts for nothing. You know what it is," he said.
"Yes," said Alice Deringham simply. "But why did you not ask for it earlier, Harry? It would have saved one of us so much."
Alton laughed a little, and glanced down at his knee. "Well, I fancied—but, pshaw, I was a fool," said he.
"Yes," said Alice Deringham. "I think you were—for I was only sorry then. And—after all that has happened—are you not foolish still? I am not the woman you fancy I am, Harry, and you know how I have wronged you."
"You are the one I want," said Alton gravely. "And I know who it was gave all she had to help me when I was beaten."
Alice Deringham still drew back from him. "It was your own, and you do not quite know all yet," she said. "I am a penniless girl——"
Alton laughed exultantly as he stooped and caught her wrist. "All that I want the most you give, and when you sent me away I knew it was mine," he said. "But Somasco, and the silver up yonder, is mine, too, and that when we have redeemed Carnaby will be quite enough for two."
Alice Deringham made no further resistance, but glanced up into his eyes as he drew her to him, and then felt his arm close round her with a great contentment.
It was half an hour later when she met Nellie Seaforth in a corridor, and the latter stretched her hands out impulsively and kissed her.
"You need not tell me, and I am very glad," she said. "Of course you will be happy. He is a good man."
Alice Deringham coloured in a fashion Nellie Seaforth had not believed her capable of, and there was a depth of grave tenderness in her eyes.
"Yes," she said simply. "And because of his goodness I must try to be a better woman."
She passed on, and Nellie Seaforth, who found her husband, smiled at him. "It has all come right, and I don't think Harry will be sorry, though he might have been had it happened earlier," she said,
"That strikes me as a little mixed," said Seaforth dryly.
Mrs. Seaforth shook her head at him. "No. It's quite plain," she said. "I think Miss Deringham has been taught a good deal, and whatever she may have been she will only be lovable as Mrs. Alton."
Seaforth smiled gravely. "Now I understand—fellow-feeling prompts me to, and of course you are right," he said. "There must be a special blessing on those who, like you and Harry, ask very little, and give with an open hand."