CHAPTER V
A SURPRISE PARTY
Except when the snow lies deep one has scanty leisure on the prairie,and when Adams departed Thorn and I hurriedly recommenced our task. Wehad lost time to make up, and vied with each other; for I had discoveredthat, even in a country where all work hard, much more is done for themaster who can work himself. Pitching heavy trusses into a wagon is notchild's play at that temperature, but just then the exertion broughtrelief, and I was almost sorry when Thorn went off with the lurchingvehicle, leaving me to the mower and my thoughts. The latter were notoverpleasant just then. Still, the machine needed attention, and thehorses needed both restraint and encouragement, for at times they seemeddisposed to lie down, and at others, maddened by the insects, inclinedto kick the rusty implement into fragments, and I grew hoarse withshouting, while the perspiration dripped from me.
It was towards six o'clock, and the slanting sunrays beat pitilesslyinto my face, which was thick with fibrous grime, when, with Thornlagging behind, I tramped stiffly beside the wagon towards my house. Myblue shirt was rent in places; the frayed jean jacket, being minus itsbuttons, refused to meet across it; and nobody new to the prairie wouldhave taken me for the owner of such a homestead as Gaspard's Trail.Thick dust, through which mounted figures flitted, rolled about thedwelling, and a confused bellowing mingled with the human shouts thatrose from behind the long outbuildings.
"It's Henderson's boys bringing shipping stock along. Somebody's beensqueezing him for money or he wouldn't sell at present," said Thorn, whorejoined me. "They'll camp here to-night and clean up the larder. Iguess most everybody knows how Henderson feeds them."
There are disadvantages attached to the prairie custom of freehospitality, and I surmised that Henderson's stock riders might havepushed on to the next homestead if they had not known that we kept agood table at Gaspard's Trail. Nevertheless, I was thankful that nostranger need ever leave my homestead hungry, and only wondered whethermy cook's comments would be unduly sulphurous. When I reached thewire-fenced corral, which was filled with circling cattle and anintolerable dust, a horseman flung his hand up in salute.
"We're bound for the Indian Spring Bottom with an H triangle draft," hesaid. "The grass is just frizzled on the Blackfeet run, and we figuredwe'd camp right here with you to-night."
"That's all right; but couldn't you have fetched Carson's by duskwithout breaking anybody's neck; and yonder beasts aren't brandedtriangle H," I said.
The horseman laughed silently in prairie fashion. "Well, we might and wemightn't; but Carson's a close man, and I've no great use for staleflapjacks and glucose drips. No, sir, I'm not greedy, and we'll just letCarson keep them for himself. Those beasts marked dash circle are thebest of the lot. Lane's put the screw on Redmond, and forced him topart. Redmond's down on his luck. He's crawling round here somewhere,cussing Lane tremendous."
"Lane seems to own all this country," I answered irritably. "Has he gota hold on your master, too? I told him and Redmond I was saving thatstrip of sweet prairie for myself."
"He will own all the country, if you bosses don't kick in time," was thedry answer. "I don't know how ours is fixed, but he's mighty short intemper, and you've no monopoly of unrecorded prairie. Say, it might saveyour boys a journey if we took your stock along with us and gave them achance before this draft cleans all the sweet grass up. Redmond told meto mention it."
The offer was opportune, and I accepted it; then hurried towards thegalvanized iron shed which served as summer quarters for the generalutility man who acted as cook. He was a genius at his business, thoughhe had learned it on board a sailing ship. He was using fiery languageas he banged his pans about. "It's a nice state of things when acattle-whacking loafer can walk right in and tell me what he wants forhis supper," he commenced. "General Jackson! it's bad enough when ablame cowboy outfit comes down on one like the locusts and cleanseverything up, but it's worse just when I'm trying to fix a specialhigh-grade meal."
"I'm not particular. What is good enough for a cowboy is good enough fora rancher any time," I said; and the cook, who was despotic master ofhis own domain, jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction ofthe house. "Guess it mightn't be to-night. Get out, and give me a fairshow. You're blocking up the light."
I went on towards the house, wondering what he could mean, but halted onthe threshold of our common room, a moment too late. We had worked nightand day during spring and early summer, and the sparely-furnished roomwas inches deep in dust. Guns, harness I had no time to mend, andworn-out garments lay strewn about it, save where, in a futile attemptto restore order, I had hurled a pile of sundries into one corner.Neither was I in exactly a condition suitable for feminine society, andBeatrice Haldane, who had by some means preserved her dainty white dressimmaculate, leaned back in an ox-hide chair regarding me with quietamusement. Her father lounged smoking in the window seat, and it was hisyounger daughter who, when I was about to retreat, came forward andmischievously greeted me.
"I believe you were ready to run away, Mr. Ormesby, and you really don'tseem as much pleased to see us as you ought to be," she said. "You knowyou often asked us to visit you, so you have brought this surprise partyon your own head."
"I hope you will not suffer for your rashness, but you see those men outthere. They generally leave famine behind them when they come," I said.
The girl nodded. "They are splendid. I have been talking to them, andmade one sit still while I drew him. Please don't trouble about supper.I have seen cookie, and he's going to make the very things I like."
Miss Haldane's eyebrows came down just a trifle, and I grew uneasy,wondering whether it was the general state of chaos or my own appearancewhich had displeased her; but Haldane laughed heartily before he brokein: "Lucille is all Canadian. She has not been to Europe yet, and I amnot sure that I shall send her. She has examined the whole placealready, and decided that you must be a very----"
The girl's lips twitched with suppressed merriment, but she alsoreddened a little; and I interposed: "A very busy man, was it not? Nowyou must give me ten minutes in which to make myself presentable."
I was glad to escape, and, for reasons, withdrew sideways in crabfashion, while what suspiciously resembled smothered laughter followedme. By good luck, and after upsetting the contents of two bureaus uponthe floor, I was able to find garments preserved for an occasional visitto the cities, and, flinging the window open, I hailed a man below tobring me a big pail of water. He returned in ten minutes with a verysmall one, and with the irate cook expostulating behind him, while Ifeared his comments would be audible all over the building.
"Cook says the well's playing out, and washing's foolishness thisweather. The other pail's got dead gophers in it, and Jardine allows hecaught cookie fishing more of them out of the water he used for thetea."
"Fling them out, and for heaven's sake let me have the thing. I'mgetting used to gophers, and dead ones can't bite you," I said, fearingthat if the indignant cook got to close quarters the precious fluidmight be spilled. Then while I completed my toilet Cotton came in.
"Perhaps I was hardly civil this morning," he commenced. "I'm out forfour days' fire-guard inspecting, and thought I'd come round and tellyou----"
"That you saw the Bonaventure wagon heading in this direction," Iinterposed. "Well, you're always welcome at Gaspard's Trail, and Ipresume you won't feel tempted to draw the line at my present guests."
Cotton dropped into my one sound chair. "I suppose I deserve it,Ormesby. We shall not get such opportunities much longer, and one can'thelp making the most of them," he said.
We went down together; and there was no doubt that the cook had done hisbest, while Haldane laughed and his younger daughter looked very demurewhen, as we sat down at table, I stared about my room. It had lost itsbare appearance, the thick dust had gone, and there was an air ofcomfort about it I had never noticed before.
"You see what a woman's hand can do. Lucille couldn't resist thetemptation of straightening things
for you," observed the owner ofBonaventure. "She said the place resembled a----"
The girl blushed a little, and shook her head warningly at her father,while, as she did so, her bright hair caught a shaft of light from thewindow and shimmered like burnished gold. For a moment it struck me thatshe equaled her sister in beauty; and she was wholly bewitching with themischief shining in her eyes. There was, however, a depth of kindlinessbeneath the mischief, and I had seen the winsome face grow proud with ahigh courage one night when the snows whirled about Bonaventure.Nevertheless, I straightway forgot it when Beatrice Haldane set to workamong the teacups at the head of the table, for her presencetransfigured the room. I had often, as I sat there through the bitterwinter nights, pictured her taking a foremost place in some scene ofbrightness in London or Montreal, but never presiding at my poor tableor handling my dilapidated crockery with her dainty fingers. She did it,as she did everything, very graciously; while, to heighten the contrast,the lowing of cattle and the hoarse shouts of those who drove them,mingled with whipcracks and the groaning of jolting wagons, came inthrough the open windows.
For a time the meal progressed satisfactorily. Haldane was excellentcompany, and I had almost forgotten my fears that some untoward accidentmight happen, when his younger daughter asked: "What is a gopher, Mr.Cotton? I have heard of them, but never saw one."
I projected a foot in his direction under the table, regretting I haddiscarded my working boots, and Haldane, dropping his fork, looked upsharply.
"A little beast between a rat and a squirrel, which lives in a hole inthe ground. There are supposed to be more of them round Gaspard's Trailthan anywhere in Canada," answered the trooper, incautiously. "That'squite correct, Ormesby. You cannot contradict me."
I did not answer, but grew uneasy, seeing that he could not take a hint;and the girl continued: "Are they fond of swimming?"
"I don't think so," answered Cotton, with a slightly puzzled air; andthen added, with an infantile attempt at humor, for which I longed tochoke him: "I'm not a natural historian, but Ormesby ought to know. Ifound him not long ago in a very bad temper fishing dozens of dead onesout of his well. Perhaps they swam too long, and were too tired to climbout, you know."
Lucille Haldane, who had been thirsty, gave a little gasp and laid herhand on the cup Cotton would have passed on for replenishing. Her sisterglanced at her with some surprise, and then quietly set down her own,while I grew hot all over and felt savagely satisfied by the way hewinced that this time I had got my heel well down on Cotton's toe. Thenthere was an awkward silence until Haldane, leaning back in his chair,laughed boisterously when the lad, attempting to retrieve one blunder,committed another.
"I am afraid there are a good many at Bonaventure, and it is notOrmesby's fault, you see. It is almost impossible for anybody to keepthem out of the wells in dry weather; but nobody minds a few gophers inthis country."
Haldane had saved the situation; but his elder daughter filled no moreteacups, and both my fair guests seemed to lose their appetite, while Iwas almost glad when the meal I had longed might last all night was overand Lucille and her father went out to inspect the cattle. I, however,detained Cotton, who was following them with alacrity.
"Your jokes will lead you into trouble some day, and it's a pity youcouldn't have displayed your genius in any other direction," I said.
"You need not get so savage over a trifle," he answered apologetically."I really didn't mean to upset things--it was an inspiration. No manwith any taste could be held responsible for his answers when a girlwith eyes like hers cross-questions him. You really ought to cultivate abetter temper, Ormesby."
I let him go, and joined Beatrice Haldane, who had remained behind therest. She did not seem to care about horses and cattle, and appearedgrateful when I found her a snug resting-place beneath the strawpilegranary.
"You are to be complimented, since you have realized at least part ofyour aspirations," she said, as she swept a glance round my possessions."Is it fair to ask, are you satisfied with--this?"
I followed her eyes with a certain thrill of pride. Wheat land, many ofthe dusty cattle, broad stretch of prairie, barns, and buildings weremine, and the sinewy statuesque horsemen, who came up across the levelsbehind further bunches of dappled hide and tossing horns, moved at mybidding. By physical strain and mental anxiety I had steadily extendedthe boundaries of Gaspard's Trail, and, had I been free from Lane, wouldin one respect have been almost satisfied. Then I looked up at mycompanion, whose pale-tinted draperies and queenly head with itsclustering dark locks were outlined against the golden straw, and aboldness, as well as a great longing, came upon me.
"It is a hard life, but a good one," I said. "There is no slackening ofanxiety and little time for rest, but the result is encouraging. When Itook hold, with a few hundred pounds capital, Gaspard's Trail wassod-built and its acreage less than half what it is at present; but thisis only the beginning, and I am not content. Bad seasons do not lastforever, and in spite of obstacles I hope the extension will continueuntil it is the largest holding on all this prairie; but even thatconsummation will be valuable only as the means to an end."
Beatrice Haldane looked at me with perfect composure. "Is it all worthwhile, and how long have you been so ambitious?" she asked, with asmile, the meaning of which I could not fathom.
"Since a summer spent in England showed me possibilities undreamed ofbefore," I said; and while it is possible that the vibration in my voicebetrayed me, the listener's face remained a mask. Beatrice Haldane wasalready a woman of experience.
"One might envy your singleness of purpose, but there are things whichneither success nor money can buy," she said. "Probably you have no timeto carefully analyze your motives, but it is not always wise to take toomuch for granted. Even if you secured all you believe prosperity couldgive you you might be disappointed. Wiser men have found themselvesmistaken, Rancher Ormesby."
"You are right in the first case," I answered. "But in regard to theother, would not the effort be proof enough? Would any man spend thebest years of his life striving for what he did not want?"
"Some have spent the whole of it, which was perhaps better than havingthe longer time for disappointment," answered the girl, with a curioussmile. "But are we not drifting, as we have done before, into aprofitless discussion of subjects neither of us knows much about?Besides, the sun is swinging farther west and the glare hurts my eyes,while father and Lucille appear interested yonder."
Beatrice Haldane always expressed herself quietly, but few men wouldhave ventured to disregard her implied wishes, and I took the hint,fearing I had already said too much. Gaspard's Trail was not yet thefinest homestead on the prairie, and the time to speak had not arrived.When we joined Haldane it was a somewhat stirring sight we looked upon.A draft of my own cattle came up towards the corral at a run, mountedmen shouting as they cantered on each flank, while one, swinging a whiptwice, raced at a gallop around the mass of tossing horns when the herdwould have wheeled and broken away from the fence in a stampede. Theearth vibrated to the beat of hoofs; human yells and a tumultuousbellowing came out of the dust; and I sighed with satisfaction when,cleverly turned by a rider, who would have lost his life had his horse'sspeed or his own nerve failed him, the beasts surged pell-mell into theenclosure. Much as I regretted to part with them, their sale should setme free of debt.
Then the flutter of a white dress caught my eye, and I saw LucilleHaldane, who, it seemed, had already pressed the foreman into herservice, applauding when Thorn, cleverly roping a beast, reined in hishorse, and, jerking it to a standstill, held it for her inspection. Itno doubt pleased him to display his skill, but I saw it was with Thorn,as it had been with the sergeant, a privilege to interest the girl. Shewalked close up to the untamed creature, which, with heaving sides andspume dripping from its nostrils, seemed to glare less angrily at her,while Thorn appeared puzzled as he answered her rapid questions, andHaldane leaned on the rails with his face curiously tender as he watchedher. Trooper C
otton, coming up, appropriated Miss Haldane with boyishassurance, and her father turned to me.
"My girl has almost run me off my feet, and now that she has takenpossession of your foreman, I should be content to sit down to a quietsmoke," he said. "Will you walk back to the house with me?"
I could only agree, but I stopped on the way to speak to one of the menwho had brought in the cattle. He was a struggling rancher, withoutenterprise or ability, and generally spoken of with semi-contemptuouspity. "I'm obliged to you, Redmond, for suggesting that you would takemy draft along; but why didn't you come in and take supper with therest? This sort of banquet strikes me as the reverse of neighborly," Isaid.
The man fidgeted as he glanced at the dirty handkerchief containingeatables beside him. "I figured you had quite enough without me, and Idon't feel in much humor for company just now," he said. "This seasonhas hit me mighty hard."
"Something more than the season has hit him," commented Haldane, as weproceeded. "If ever I saw a weak man badly ashamed of himself, that wasone. You can't think of any underhand trick he might have played youlately?"
"No," I answered lightly. "He is a harmless creature, and has nopossible reason for injuring me."
"Quite sure?" asked Haldane, with a glance over his shoulder as weentered the door. "I've seen men of his kind grow venomous when driveninto a corner. However, it's cool and free from dust in here. Sit downand try this tobacco."
Haldane was said to be a shrewd judge of his fellowmen, but I could seeno cause why Redmond should cherish a grudge against me, and knew he hadspoken the truth when he said the seasons had hit him hardly. It wascurrently reported that he was heavily in debt, and the stock-rider hadsuggested that Lane was pressing him. When Haldane had lighted a cigarhe took a roll of paper off the table and tossed it across to me,saying, "Is that your work, Ormesby?"
"No. I never saw it before," I answered, when a glance showed me thatthe paper contained a cleverly drawn map of our vicinity, and Haldanenodded.
"To tell the truth, I hardly expected it was. Some of your recentvisitors must have dropped it, and as my daughter found it among thelitter during the course of her improvements, and asked whether itshould be preserved, I could not well help seeing what it was. Look atthe thing again, and tell me what you conclude from it."
"That whoever made it had a good eye for the most valuable locations inthis district," I answered, thoughtfully. "He has also shaded with thesame tint part of my possessions in Crane Valley."
"Exactly!" and Haldane gazed intently into the blue cigar smoke. "Doesit strike you that the man who made the map intended to acquire thoselocations, and that, considering the possible route of the railway, heshowed a commendable judgment?"
"It certainly does so now," I answered; and Haldane favored me with asearching glance. "Then when you discover who it is, keep your eyes onhim, and especially beware of giving him any hold on you."
I suspected that Lane had made the map, and it is a pity I did not takeHaldane into my full confidence; but misguided pride forbade it, and wesmoked in silence until the opportunity was lost, for he rose, saying:"No peace for the wicked; the girls are returning. Great heavens! Ithought the child had broken her neck!"
While Thorn went round by the slip-rails, a slender, white-robed figureon a big gray horse sailed over the tall fence and came up towards thehouse at a gallop, followed by the startled foreman. Haldane, whoseunshakable calm was famous in Eastern markets, quivered nervously, and Ifelt relieved that there had been no accident, for it was a daring leap.Then, while Cotton and Beatrice Haldane followed, Lucille came influshed and exultant.
"We have had a delightful time, father, and you must leave me in chargeof Bonaventure when you go East," she said. "But where did you get thelady's saddle, Mr. Ormesby?"
"It is not mine," I answered, smiling. "It belongs to my neighbor'ssister, Sally Steel. She rode a horse over here for Thorn to doctor."
I regretted the explanation too late. Steel was a good neighbor, butcommon report stigmatized his sister as a reckless coquette, and by themomentary contraction of Beatrice Haldane's forehead I feared that shehad heard the gossip. If this were so, however, she showed no other signof it.
When a delicious coolness preceded the dusk it was suggested that Cottonshould sing to us, and he did so, fingering an old banjo of mine with nomean skill. I managed to find a place by Beatrice Haldane's side, andwhen the pale moon came out and the air had the quality of snow-cooledwine, her sister sang in turn to the trooper's accompaniment. Iremember only that it was a song free from weak sentimentality, with anheroic undertone; but it stirred me, and a murmur of voices rose fromthe shadows outside. Then Foreman Thorn stood broad hat in hand, in thedoorway.
"If it wouldn't be a liberty, miss, the boys would take it as an honorif you would sing that, or something else, over again. They've neverheard nothing like it, even down to Winnipeg," he said.
The girl blushed a little, and looked at me. "They were kind to me. Doyou really think it would please them?" she asked.
"If it doesn't they will be abominably ungrateful; but although we arenot conventional, the request strikes me as a liberty," I said, noticingthat her sister did not seem wholly pleased.
"Tell them I will do my best," was the answer, and, after a conferencewith Cotton, Lucille Haldane walked towards the open door. There was notrace of vanity or self-consciousness in her bearing. It was purekindliness which prompted her, and when she stood outside the building,with the star-strewn vault above her, and the prairie silver-gray at herfeet, bareheaded, slight, and willowy in her thin white dress, it seemedsmall wonder that the dusty men who clustered about the wire fence swungdown their broad hats to do her homage.
Perfect stillness succeeded, save for sounds made by the restlesscattle; then the banjo tinkled, and a clear voice rang out through thesoft transparency of the summer night: "All day long the reapers!"
There was a deep murmur when the last tinkle of the banjo sank intosilence, a confused hum of thanks, and teamster and stock-rider meltedaway, and Lucille Haldane, returning, glanced almost apologetically atme.
"I just felt I had to please them," she said. "Even if you older peoplesmile, I am proud of this great country, and it seems to me that theseare the men who are making it what it will some day be. Don't you thinkthat we who live idly in the cities owe a good deal to them?"
Haldane laid his hand caressingly on his daughter's arm. "Impulsive asever--but perhaps you are right," he said. "In any case, it will beafter midnight before we get home, and you might ask for our team,Ormesby."
Every man about Gaspard's Trail helped to haul up the wagon and harnessthe spirited team, while, in spite of Cotton's efforts, Thorn insistedon handing my youngest guest into the vehicle; and it was with somedifficulty I exchanged parting civilities with the rest as the vehiclerolled away amid the stockmen's cheers.