CHAPTER III
LISTER CLEARS THE GROUND
The sun was on the rocks and the lichen shone in rings of soft andvaried color. Blue shadows filled the dale, which, from the side of theButtress, looked profoundly deep. A row of young men and women followeda ledge that crossed the face of the steep crag; Mortimer Hyslopleading, a girl and Vernon a few yards behind, Lister and Barbarafarther off.
Hyslop knew the rocks and was a good leader. He was cool and cautiousand did not undertake a climb until he was satisfied about hiscompanions' powers. The slanting edge looked dangerous, but was not,although one must be steady and there was an awkward corner. At theturning, the ledge got narrow, and one must seize a knob and then steplightly on a stone embedded in mossy soil.
When they reached the spot Hyslop stopped and told Vernon what to do;the girl immediately behind him was a clever mountaineer. They wentround and Lister watched from a few yards off. For a moment or two eachin turn, supported by one foot with body braced against the rock,grasped the knob and vanished round the corner. It was plain one mustget a firm hold, but Lister thought this was all. He was used to thetall skeleton trestles that carried the rails across Canadian ravines.
After the others disappeared Lister seized the knob. He thought thestone he stood on moved and he cautiously took a heavier strain on hisarm. He could get across, but he obeyed an impulse and gave the stone apush. It rolled out and, when he swung himself back to the ledge,plunged down and smashed upon the rocks below. For a few moments theechoes rolled about the crags, and then Hyslop shouted: "Are you allright? Can you get round?"
Lister said he thought not, and Hyslop replied that it did not matter.Barbara would take him up a grassy ridge and the others would meet themat the top. A rattle of nailed boots indicated that he was going off andLister turned and glanced at Barbara. She had sat down on an inclinedslab and her figure and face, in profile, cut against the sky. A yard ortwo beneath her, the sloping rock vanished at the top of a steep pitchand one saw nothing but the crags across the narrow dale. Yet Listerthought the girl was not disturbed.
"I expect I was clumsy,'' he apologized.
"Well," she said, "it looks like that!"
He gave her a quick glance and pondered. Although he had gone to Carrocksince she came home, she had been strangely cold and, so to speak,aloof. He had imagined their meeting might embarrass her, but she wasnot embarrassed. In fact, she had met him as if he were a friend, but hehad not seen her afterwards unless somebody was about. Now he meant toforce her to be frank.
"I was clumsy," he resumed. "All the same, when I felt the stone beginto move I might have pulled myself across by my hands. I expect theblock would have been firm enough to carry you."
"Yes, I know," said Barbara. "You didn't want me to get across!"
Lister studied her. He doubted if it was altogether exertion that hadbrought the blood to her skin and given her eyes the keen sparkle.Clinging to the rock, with the shadowy gulf below, she looked strangelyalert and virile. Her figure cut against the sky; he noted itsslenderness and finely-drawn lines. She was not angry, although he hadadmitted he pushed down the stone, but he felt as if something dividedthem and doubted if he could remove the obstacle.
"I wanted to talk and had found I could not get near you unless theothers were about," he said. "It looked as if I had unconsciously givenyou some grounds for standing me off. Well, I suppose I did put yourrelations on your track."
"It wasn't that," said Barbara. "I imagine Harry Vernon helped youthere. You were forced to tell your story."
"I was forced. All the same, I think Harry's plan was good."
"He went away a few days before I arrived!" Barbara remarked.
Lister thought he saw where she led and knitted his brows. He was onawkward ground and might say too much, but to say nothing might beworse.
"Harry's a good sort and I expect he pulled out because he imaginedyou'd sooner he did so," he said. "For all that, I reckon he ought tohave stayed."
Although her color was vivid, Barbara gave him a searching glance. "Inorder to imply I had no grounds for embarrassment if I met him? Harrywas at the camp in the woods."
"He knew you had no grounds for embarrassment," Lister declared. "Iknew, and Harry's an older friend."
Barbara turned her head, and when she looked back Lister thought hisboldness was justified. In a sense she had been very frank, althoughperhaps this situation made for frankness. They were alone on the faceof the towering crag. All was very quiet but for the noise of fallingwater, and the only living object one could see was a buzzard hoveringhigh up at a white cloud's edge. One could talk in the mountain solitudeas one could not talk in a drawing-room. For all that, Lister felt hehad not altogether broken the girl's reserve.
"One envies men like you who build railways and sail ships," she said,and now Lister wondered where she led. "You live a natural life, knowingbodily strain and primitive emotions. Sometimes you're exhausted andsometimes afraid. Your thought's fixed on the struggle; you're keenlyoccupied. Isn't it like that?"
"Something like that," Lister agreed. "Sometimes the strain getsmonotonous."
"But it's often thrilling. Men and women need to be thrilled. Peopletalk about the modern lust for excitement, but it isn't modern and Iexpect the instinct's sound. Civilization that gives us hot water beforewe get up and food we didn't grow is not all an advantage. Our bodiesget soft and we're driven back on our emotions. Where we want action weget talk. Then one gets up against the rules; you mustn't be angry, youmustn't be sincere, you must use a dreary level calm."
Lister was puzzled and said nothing, but Barbara went on: "Perhaps somegirls like this; others don't, and now and then rebel. We feel we'rehuman, we want to live. Adventure calls us, as it calls you. We want tofront life's shocks and storms; unsatisfied curiosity drives us on. Thenperhaps romance comes and all the common longings of flesh and blood aretransfigured."
She stopped, and Lister began to see a light. This was her apology forher rashness in Canada, all she would give, and he doubted if she hadgiven as much to others. On the whole, he thought the apology good.
"Romance cheats one now and then," he remarked, and pulled himself upawkwardly, but Barbara was calm.
"I wonder whether it always cheats one!"
"I think not," he said. "Sometimes one must trust one's luck, andventure. All the same, philosophizing is not my habit, and when I didn'tstep lightly on the stone--"
"You mean, when you pushed the stone down?" Barbara interrupted.
"Oh, well. Anyhow, I didn't mean to philosophize. I wanted to find outwhy you kept away from me."
"Although you knew why I did so? You admitted you knew why Harry wentoff!"
"I see I've got to talk," said Lister. "Shillito was a cheat, but whenyou found him out you tried to jump off the train. You let me helpbecause I think you trusted me."
"I did trust you. It's much to know my trust was justified. For onething, it looks as if I wasn't altogether a fool."
"Afterwards, when I met you at Montreal, you were friendly, although youtried to persuade me you were a shop girl."
Barbara smiled. "I was a shop girl. Besides, you were a stranger, andit's sometimes easy to trust people one does not expect to see again."
"My plan's to trust the people I like all the time," Lister replied."When I found you on the car platform I knew I ought to help, I saw youmeant to escape from something mean. Then at Montreal it was plain youwere trying in make good because you were proud and would not go back. Iliked that, although I thought you were not logical. Well, I told yourstory because Vernon bluffed me, but if I'd known your step-father as Iknow him now, I'd have told the tale before."
"Then, it was in order that I might understand this you sent the stonedown the crag?"
"I think it was," said Lister. "I hope I have, so to speak, cleared theground."
Barbara gave him a puzzling smile. "You're rather obvious, but it'simportant you mean to be nice. However, I expect the others
are waitingfor us and we must join them, although we won't go by the grass ridge,"She indicated the slope of cracked rock in front. "The hold is prettygood. Do you think you can get up?"
Lister doubted. He was athletic and steady, but the climb looked awkwardfor a beginner.
"If you are going, I'll try."
"You imagine you can go where I can go?"
"Something like that," Lister admitted. "If I'm beaten, you'reaccountable and will have to help."
He was satisfied by Barbara's frank laugh. Her mood was changeable. Notlong since he had, with awkward sympathy, thought her a proud humiliatedwoman; now she was marked by the humor of a careless girl. He could,however, play up to her later mood, and when they set off he began tojoke.
The rock slanted, and cracks and breaks gave a firm hold, but there wasnot a crack wherever one was needed and the pitch was steep. Then inplaces the slabs were slippery with wet lichen and Lister's ordinarywalking boots could get no grip. His jokes stopped and the sweat beganto dew his face. His breath got hard and he felt his heart beat. It wasobvious that climbing needed study.
For all that, he went on and found a strange delight in watchingBarbara. Her clothes harmonized with the soft colors of lichen andstone; her movements were confident and light. He got no sense ofeffort; her pose was seldom strained and the lines of her limbs and bodyflowed in easy curves. He thought she rather flitted than labored up therock. Practice no doubt accounted for much, but something was due totemperament. Barbara did not hesitate; she trusted her luck and wentahead.
At length she stopped, pressed against the stone in the hollow of agully, while Lister crept obliquely across a long wet slab. He looked upand saw her face, finely colored after effort, against a background ofgreen and gold. The berries on a small mountain-ash in a crannyharmonized with the carmine of her skin. She looked down and smiled withcareless amusement.
Then Lister's foot slipped and he could get no hold for his hands. Hissmooth boots drew a greasy line across the wet slab as he slid down.Perhaps the risk was not very daunting, but he knew he must not rolldown far. At the bottom of the slab he brought up with his foot bracedagainst a knob, and he saw Barbara coming after him. When she stoppedher glance was apologetic.
"I forgot you hadn't proper boots. Give me your hand and try again."
"No, thanks," said Lister. "Do you think I'm going to let you pull meup?"
"Why not?" she asked with a twinkle.
"To begin with, I'm obstinate and don't mean to be beaten by a bit ofgreasy rock. Then I expect I'm heavier than you think."
"You're ridiculously proud. It would hurt to let a girl help," Barbararejoined. "After all, you're a conventionalist, and I rather thought youwere not."
"Anyhow, I'm going up myself," Lister declared.
He got up, but his clothes gathered some slime from the rock and hisskin was stained by soil and moss. Barbara looked at him with a twinkle.
"Your obstinacy cost you something," she remarked. "If you're tired, youhad better stop and smoke."
Lister lighted a cigarette. She had been rather keen about rejoining theothers, but he thought she had forgotten. Barbara's carelessness gaveher charm. Perhaps he ought to go on, but he meant to take the extra fewminutes luck had given him.
"I'm really sorry I forgot about your boots and brought you up therock," she said.
"I wonder why you did bring me up?"
"Oh, well, a number of the men I know have a comfortable feeling ofsuperiority. Of course, nice men don't make you feel this, but it'sthere. One likes to give such pride a jolt."
"I think I see. If it's some comfort, I'll own you can beat me going upawkward rocks. But where does this take us?"
Barbara smiled. "It takes us some distance. When you admit a girl's yourequal, friendship's easier. You know, one reason Mortimer and I can'tagree is, his feeling of superiority is horribly strong."
"Couldn't you take him up an awkward gully and get him stuck?"
"No," said Barbara, in a regretful voice. "He's really a good cragsmanand knows exactly how far he can go. When he starts an awkward climb hereckons up all the obstacles and is ready to get round them when theycome. The plan's good. People like Mortimer don't get stuck."
"It's possible, but I expect they miss something now and then. Thereisn't much thrill in knowing you are safe."
"Sometimes you play up rather well," Barbara remarked.
"I'm not playing up. I'm preaching my code. I'm not as sober andcautious as you perhaps think."
"For example?"
"You'll probably get bored, but in Canada I turned down a pretty goodjob because it was monotonous. I wanted something fresh, and thought I'dgo across and see the Old Country. Well, I'm here and all's charming,but I don't know how I'll get back when my wad runs out."
"Ah," said Barbara, "you mean your money will soon be gone? But you haverelations. Somebody would help."
"It's possible, but I would refuse," Lister rejoined. "You're notadventuring much when another meets the bill. When my wallet's emptyI'll pull out and take any old job. The chances are I'll go to sea."
Barbara gave him an approving glance. She had known but one otheradventurer and he was a rogue. Lister was honest and she thought hewould go far. She liked his rashness, but if he found it hard to get onboard ship, she imagined she could help. All the same, she would nottalk about this yet.
"We really must go," she said, and they started up a gully where holesand wedged stones helped them up like steps.
When they left the gully they saw a group of people on the neighboringsummit of the hill and for a moment Lister stopped.
"We have had a glorious climb," he said, "Now it's over, I hope you'renot going to stand me off again."
Barbara gave him a curious smile. "One can't stop on the mountains long.We're going down to the every-day level and all looks different there."
The others began to wave to them, and crossing a belt of boggy grassthey joined the group. When they returned to Carrock, Cartwright was notabout and Mrs. Cartwright said he had got a telegram calling him toLiverpool.