THE "SHASTA" GOES TO SEA
It was a still, clear evening when Jimmy stood at the _Shasta_'s gangway
waiting to receive his guests. She lay out in the Inlet, and he could
see the two boats sliding across the smooth, green water with a measured
splash of oars, while the voices of their occupants reached him faintly
through the clatter of a C.P.R. liner's winches and the tolling of a
locomotive bell ashore. A thin jet of steam simmered about the
_Shasta_'s rusty funnel, and she lay motionless on the glassy brine,
with cracked and splintered decks, and what paint a long exposure to
rain and sun had not removed peeling from her. Jimmy had had no time to
spare for any attempt at decoration during the voyage down Puget Sound.
Indeed, he and his engineer felt thankful they had succeeded in bringing
her round at all.
By and by the first boat ran alongside, and, because she belonged to the
_Shasta_, Jimmy was relieved to see that there was, after all, not a
very great deal of water in her, though his guests sat with their feet
drawn up. There were several of them: Jordan, who wore among other
somewhat unusual garments a frock-coat, and was talking volubly;
Eleanor, in elaborate white dress and a very big white hat; old Leeson,
Forster and his wife. Jimmy helped them up with difficulty, for the
_Shasta_ was floating high and light and had not been provided with a
passenger ladder. Something in his sister's face perplexed him when at
last they stood on deck. Eleanor was quieter than usual, and when she
looked at him there was a trace of color in her cheeks he could not
quite account for.
"You seem almost astonished to see me," she said. "Even if I hadn't
wanted to come, Charley would have insisted on it."
Jimmy gazed hard at both her and Jordan, and noticed that Mrs. Forster
seemed a trifle amused.
"Charley?" he said.
"Of course. Hasn't he told you?" said Eleanor; and though she laughed,
there was diffidence and pride in her eyes when she glanced at the man
beside her. It was also, her brother felt, rather more than the pride of
possession.
"I must explain," said Jordan. "When I came off this morning, Jimmy was
too sleepy to be entrusted with any information of the kind. Still, I
quite think I deserve a few congratulations."
Jimmy looked at him with a faint wrinkling of his brows, and then
involuntarily turned toward the rest of the company.
"Well," he said, "I suppose it's only natural, though of course I never
expected this."
Mrs. Forster laughed outright. "Then everybody else did, and ventured to
approve of it."
Jimmy stretched his hand out, and grasped that of his comrade slowly and
tenaciously. "After all, there is nobody I should sooner trust her to,
and I don't think you could have got anybody more--capable, generally,"
he said. "Eleanor, you see, is cleverer than I am."
Eleanor Wheelock naturally understood her brother, and there was
whimsical toleration in her smile, while the little twinkle grew more
pronounced in Jordan's eyes. He was a shrewd man, and had already formed
a reasonably accurate notion of Jimmy and Eleanor Wheelock's respective
capabilities.
"Thank you!" he said. "The other boat should be almost alongside."
He moved aft with Eleanor and the rest of the guests, while Jimmy, who
had not quite recovered from his astonishment, was leaning on the rail
when another boat slid around the _Shasta_'s stern. He recognized
Austerly and his daughter on board her, and then felt his heart beat and
the blood creep into his face, for Anthea Merril was sitting at Miss
Austerly's side. He had not seen her since he stood one morning on the
wharf in the man-o'-war cap, but he had thought of her often, and now,
though his pleasure at seeing her almost drove out the other feeling, it
seemed unfitting that she should be there to take her part in sending
out the steamer that was, if the _Shasta_ Company could contrive it, to
bring to nothing her father's scheme. The boat was alongside in a few
moments, and when her occupants reached the deck Austerly shook hands
with Jimmy.
"I must offer you my congratulations on being in command," he said. "My
daughter seemed to fancy we should be warranted in bringing Miss
Merril."
Anthea smiled at Jimmy. "Yes," she said, "I wanted to come; but of
course if it was presumptuous, you can send me back again."
"I think you ought to know there is nobody I should sooner see;" and
Jimmy, who was not so alert as usual that evening, looked at her too
steadily.
Anthea met his gaze for a moment, and then, considering that she was a
young woman accustomed to hold her own in Colonial society, it was,
perhaps, a trifle curious that she slowly looked away. None of the
others noticed this, except Miss Austerly, and she kept any conclusions
she may have formed to herself. Then, though it seemed to come about
naturally without anybody's contrivance, Austerly and his daughter
joined Jordan, and for a few minutes Anthea and Jimmy were left alone.
The girl leaned on the rail looking across the shining water toward the
great white hull of the Empress boat lying, immaculate and beautiful in
outline, beneath the climbing town. Then she turned, and Jimmy felt that
he knew what she was thinking as her eyes wandered over the little rusty
_Shasta_. Though he had not spoken, she smiled in a manner which seemed
to imply comprehension when he looked at her.
"Yes," she said, "there has been a change since I last saw you--and I am
glad you are in command. One can't help thinking that you must find
this, at least, a trifle more familiar."
"At least?" said Jimmy.
Anthea nodded, and her eyes rested on the big white mail-boat again. "I
think," she said, "you quite know what I mean."
Once more Jimmy's prudence failed him. "Well," he said, "it is rather a
curious thing that even when you don't express it I generally seem to.
I don't know"--and he added this reflectively--"why it should be so."
"I think that is rather a difficult question--one, in fact, that we
should gain nothing by going into. How long are you going to command the
_Shasta_?"
"Until----" and Jimmy, who had not quite recovered from his exertions
during the voyage, stopped abruptly. He could not tell his companion
that he expected to sail the dilapidated steamer until she had wrested
away a sufficient share of the trade her father was laying hands upon to
enable Jordan to buy a larger one.
"I don't quite know," he added. "Anyway, I was very glad to get her. It
is pleasanter to take command than to carry planks about the Hastings
wharf ashore."
"You were doing that?" and for no very ostensible reason a faint tinge
of color crept into his companion's face. Labor is held more or less
honorable in that country, but, after all, Anthea Merril was a young
woman of station.
"It must have been a change," she said a moment later.
"From the lumber schooner, or Valentine's _Sorata_?"
Anthea looked at him with a sparkle in her eyes. "Pshaw!" she said. "Are
you going to masquerade always, or do you think I am quite without
intelligence?"
Then she turned, and pointed to the beautiful white Empress boat. "When
are you going back again?"
Jimmy understood her, and made no further disclaimer. Still, his face
grew somewhat hard, and he moved abruptly.
"I don't quite know," he said. "Very likely I shall never go back at
all. Circumstances are rather against me."
"And can't you alter them?"
Jimmy drew in his breath, and unconsciously straightened himself a
trifle. The girl stood close beside him, looking at him--not as one who
asked a question, but rather as though she had expressed her belief in
his ability to do what he wished. The confidence this suggested sent a
thrill through him, and her quiet graciousness--which, though she
addressed him as one of her own world, was not without its trace of
natural dignity--and her physical beauty set his heart beating.
"I can try," he said simply. "There are, however, difficulties."
"Of course!" and Anthea smiled. "There generally are. Still, if one is
resolute enough, they can usually be got over."
Jimmy said nothing. He was not, after all, especially apt at
conversation, and he could not tell her that among all the difficulties
he might have to grapple with, the greatest was probably her father.
Just then, as it happened, Jordan turned and called to them, and, moving
aft, they descended to the little stern cabin with the rest. It was
draped with the least faded flags from the signal locker; the table
glittered with glass and silver, and was set out with great bouquets of
flowers. The ports were wide open, and the cool evening air, fragrant in
spite of the city's propinquity with the smell of the Stanley pines,
flowed in. Eleanor Wheelock looked around with a smile of appreciation,
and then turned to Jordan.
"Oh," she said, "it's pretty! You have done it all. Jimmy would never
have thought of that. But why are both those flags there?"
Jordan glanced at the two big crossed flags that streamed down upon the
settee in the vessel's counter. They were new, and athwart the broad red
and white crosses gleamed the silver stars.
"Well," he said with a little smile, "I don't know any reason why they
shouldn't be there side by side. It seems to me there'd be peace on
earth right off if they always hung that way, if only because all the
rest of the world would be afraid to break it. You have heard of the
first message we sent your folks in the Old Country over the Atlantic
cable. Besides, the thing's symbolical of another alliance that's not
only to be wished for, but going to be consummated."
Eleanor blushed becomingly amidst the approving laughter, and, as she
stood there in the gleaming white dress and big white hat, with the
clear color in her cheeks, it seemed to Jimmy that he had never seen his
sister look half so captivating. In fact, he was almost astonished that
it had not occurred to him before that Eleanor was so exceptionally
well-favored. The quiet and somewhat plain-featured Mrs. Forster, and
Austerly's sickly daughter, served as fitting foils for her somewhat
imperious beauty. Then, as she glanced in his direction, Jimmy moved a
pace or two, and Anthea came out of the shadow.
"My sister Eleanor--Miss Merril," he said.
There was a brief silence which Jimmy, at least, found embarrassing, for
it seemed to him that everybody was watching the two girls with sudden
interest. He also felt that when Anthea Merril moved forward, Eleanor,
as it were, receded into second place against her will. His sister was
wholly Western, tall, and somewhat spare, with the suppleness of a
finely tempered spring rather than that of the willow in her figure. Her
quick glance and almost incisive speech matched her bearing. One could
see that she was optimistic, daring, strenuous; but with Anthea Merril
it was different. There was a reserve about her, and a repose in voice
and gesture which in some curious fashion made both more impressive. She
was also a trifle warmer in coloring and fuller in outline, and stood
for, or so it seemed to Jimmy, cultivated ripeness as contrasted with
his sister's vigorous and brilliant crudity. Quite apart from this, he
had noticed Eleanor's brows straighten almost imperceptibly, and the
slight hardness that crept into her eyes. The others apparently did not
see it, but her brother understood those signs.
"Miss Merril! What does she want here?" said old Leeson, who usually
spoke somewhat loudly, in what he evidently fancied was an aside, and it
seemed to Jimmy that his sister's eyes asked the same question.
Anthea, so far as he could see, did not notice this, and it was she who
spoke first.
"I almost fancy I have met you somewhere, Miss Wheelock, though I do not
think it was in Vancouver," she said. "Toronto is rather a long way
off--but I wonder whether you were ever there?"
"I was," said Eleanor. "I also saw you, though I never spoke to you.
Under the circumstances, it was, however, hardly to be expected."
"No?" said Anthea, with a note of inquiry in her voice; and, though
Eleanor smiled, there was no softening of her eyes.
"I was being trained to earn my living, and my few friends belonged to a
very different set from yours."
Jimmy was not pleased with his sister. She had spoken quietly, indeed
more quietly and indifferently than she usually did, and Anthea Merril
had not shown the least resentment; but he felt that there was a sudden
antagonism between the two women. It was therefore a relief to him when
the steward appeared with the dinner, most of which Jordan had wisely
had sent from a big hotel, and they sat down at the table.
It was a convivial meal. Jordan talked volubly, and there was a sparkle
in most of what he said; Forster and Austerly were quietly jocular; and
Eleanor, who sat next their host at the head of the table as his
bride-elect, played her part in a fashion that pleased them all. Other
things had also their effect upon the company. There was the love-match
between the man who had staked every dollar he could raise to send out
that little rusty steamer, and the beautiful penniless girl, as well as
the presence of the daughter of the man who, they felt reasonably sure,
would endeavor to crush him by any means available. As it happened,
Anthea Merril talked quietly, and apparently confidentially, to Jimmy
most of the time, and even old Leeson, who grinned at them sardonically,
seemed to feel that the situation was rife with dramatic possibilities.
By and by the light commenced to fade, but Eleanor's white dress still
gleamed against the dull blue and crimson of the crossed flags; and in
after-days, when there was anger between them, Jimmy liked to remember
her sitting there at Jordan's side to speed him on the _Shasta_'s first
voyage. She made a somewhat imposing figure in the little dusky cabin,
and what she said struck the right note in the inauguration of that
venture, for she was optimistic and forceful in speech and gesture--and
Anthea now sat in the shadow.
At last old Leeson rose with a little dry chuckle. "I don't know whether
speeches are expected," he said. "Still, I guess there's one toast we
ought to honor, and that's the engaged pair. Anyway, it's one that's
especially fitting to-night, since it seems to me that if it hadn't been
for Miss Wheelock we wouldn't have been here, with steam up, on board
the _Shasta_."
There was a little good-humored laughter, but Leeson, who appeared
unconscious that his observations were open to misconception, proceeded
calmly.
"Now," he said, "in a general way, the less women have to do with
business the better; but in Miss Wheelock we have an exception. If it
hadn't been for her, Forster would not have put five thousand dollars
into the _Shasta_, and if he hadn't made the venture, it's quite likely
I wouldn't either. It's quite a big one for people of our caliber, but
we have a live man to run the thing, and he will have a wife as smart as
he is standing right behind him. Well, we'll wish the pair of them long
life and happiness."
Jimmy rose with his companions, but he was conscious that Anthea was
regarding his sister with grave inquiry. Then Jordan made his reply
conventionally, and afterward stood still a moment looking at his
guests, until with a little abrupt gesture he commenced again.
"Mr. Leeson's right: it is a big thing we have on hand," he said. "We're
going to fight and break a monopoly, and, if all goes as we expect it,
put money into our pockets. But in one way that's only half of it. I
want you to think of the honest effort, the best thing a man has to
offer, that is being wasted in this country. Can't you picture the
bush-ranchers hauling produce thirty miles over a trail a city man
wouldn't ride a horse along to the railroad, and watching fruit 'most as
good as we can raise in California rotting by the ton? I want you to
think of the oat crops cut green and half-grown, and the men who raised
them mending their clothes with flour-bags and measuring out their
groceries by the cent's worth, after spending half a lifetime chopping
out the ranch. It's wrong--clean against the economy of things. We want
every pound of whatever they can send us. We have mines and mills and
money, but in this Province our food is bad and dear. While every man
depends on his neighbor, the greatest thing in civilization is facility
of transport."
He stopped a moment for breath, and the keen sparkle in his dark eyes
grew plainer. "Well, we're going to provide it, and do what we can for
the men with the axe and the grub-hoe. Some day this great Province will
remember what it owes them. Here it's man against nature, and the fight
is hard, while we'll do more than put money in our pockets if we make it
a little easier. We want a fair deal--and we'll get it somehow--but we
want no more; and if we can hold on long enough, it won't be only those
who sent her out who will say, 'Speed the _Shasta_!'"
He stopped amidst acclamation, for his mobile face and snapping eyes had
amplified his words, and, while he handled his theme clumsily, there
was, at least, no mistaking the strident ring of the dominant note in
it. In that country it was, for the most part, man against nature, and
not man against man, and the recognition of the fact was in all who
heard him. There men wrung their money from rocky hillside and shadowy
forest with toil almost incredible, creating wealth, and not filching it
from their fellows; but nature is grim and somewhat terrible in the land
of rock and snow, and all down the great Slope, from Wrangel to Shasta,
the battle is a stern and arduous one. So there was a little kindling in
the listeners' eyes, and the women also raised their glasses high as
they said, "Speed the _Shasta_," knowing that this was in reality but a
part of what they felt.
Then Eleanor rose, and the company, scattering for the most part, went
back on deck, where it once more happened by some means that Anthea
Merril and Jimmy found themselves some distance from any of the rest.
The girl looked up at him with a little smile.
"Well," she said, "what did you think of Mr. Jordan's observations?"
Jimmy laughed. "My opinion wouldn't count. I couldn't make a speech for
my life."
"No?" said Anthea. "Still, you can hold a steamer's wheel, and perhaps
under the circumstances that is quite as much to the purpose. In any
case, while your comrade was a little flamboyant, which is much the
same thing as Western, I think he meant it. After all, if we parade our
sentiments, we generally act up to them."
"Jordan," said Jimmy, "seems to have quite a stock of them."
"And I understand he has put every dollar he has into the venture.
Still, I suppose he did it cheerfully; and you may find it necessary to
bring those bush-ranchers' produce down against a gale of wind."
There was a smile in her eyes as she looked at him, but in spite of that
Jimmy felt his face grow slightly warm. It was not, however, altogether
because Anthea noticed it that she changed the subject.
"There was one point that wasn't quite clear to me. Why did he say you
were going to break up a monopoly?"
Jimmy wished she had asked him anything else, for he had already decided
that Miss Merril knew very little about her father's business.
"Well," he said awkwardly, "that's rather a difficult thing to answer.
You see, he mentioned a monopoly----"
"He certainly did."
"Then, to begin with, there is the Dunsmore road. They naturally
couldn't handle produce as cheaply as we could, and, anyway, it isn't of
much benefit to the ranchers who can't get at it."
"'To begin with?' That implies more than one, which is, one would fancy,
the essential point of a monopoly."
"Perhaps it is," said Jimmy vaguely. "Still, when we get our hand in,
there will be three."
Anthea may have had her reasons for not pressing the question then, for
she laughed. "Of course!" she said. "Three monopolies. Well, I suppose
one must excuse you. You can hold a steamer's wheel."
Jimmy, on the whole, felt relieved when the others sauntered in their
direction, and was less grieved than he might have been under different
circumstances when Austerly drew Miss Merril away. He had felt once or
twice before, during discussions with his sister, that keen intelligence
is not invariably a commendable thing in a woman. After that, Jordan had
a good many instructions to give him, and by the time they had been
imparted the rest were clustering around the gangway; while five minutes
later Jimmy leaned on the rail watching the boats slide away toward the
dusky city. Then he climbed to his bridge, and the windlass commenced to
rattle, but he did not know that Anthea Merril, who heard his farewell
whistle, kept the others waiting on the wharf a moment or two while she
watched the _Shasta_ slowly steam out to sea.