MISS DERINGHAM FEELS SLIGHTED
The morning was still and almost unpleasantly warm, but Miss Deringham
looked very fresh and cool in her long white dress as she lay in a
deerhide chair on the verandah of the Somasco ranch. She had hung her
hat on the back of the chair, and a shaft of sunlight called up an
answering brightness from the coils of lustrous hair. One foot in the
scantiest form of slipper rested on the lowest rail of the balustrade,
and she had slightly curled herself up in the chair in a fashion which
implied a languid content with her surroundings, and that there was no
longer any need for ceremony between herself and her companion. It is
possible that Miss Deringham was aware of this, even if she had not
intended to convey that impression.
Alton, who now wore a new jean jacket buttoned right up to the neck,
leaned against a pillar, answering the questions of the girl, who
glanced at him with a smile occasionally. He had, as usual, a good
deal to do that day, and now and then turned his eyes towards the sun,
as though noticing its height above the cedars, which did not, of
course, escape Miss Deringham's attention. Still, he lingered upon the
verandah, and what she deduced from this was not unpleasant to the
girl. Though it still returned at increasing intervals, she had almost
forgotten her antipathy to the man, and the fact that he was rapidly
yielding to her refining and sometimes chastening influence was
indirectly flattering. Miss Deringham experienced the more
gratification in using it because he was quick-witted, and a veiled
rebuke would bring a little darker colour into his sun-darkened face,
and she could forgive his offences, which were indeed not frequent, for
the sake of his penitence.
"You have been very patient," she said at length.
"No," said Alton with a twinkle in his eyes, "I don't think that is a
thing anybody could bring up against me."
"Still," said the girl, "you have been an hour here talking to me, when
you must have been dying to get away."
Alton laughed, and Miss Deringham found something pleasant in his naive
directness. "Now, that's not fair. If I had been I should have gone,"
said he. "It would please me to stay right here and talk to you all
day."
Miss Deringham shook her head reproachfully. "One should imply such
things and not put them into words. Still, I scarcely think you will
much longer have an opportunity. We are going on to Vancouver very
shortly."
Alton's face grew clouded. "Why?" he said.
The girl laughed softly. "We have inconvenienced Mrs. Margery a good
deal already, and it is evident that we cannot stay here for ever."
Alton moved abruptly, and his companion fancied she heard a stifled
sigh. "No," he said gravely. "It's a pity; but you could wait for
another month or two."
Alice Deringham smiled a little. "You and Charley will miss us, then?"
Alton nodded gravely, but there was a subdued brightness in his eyes,
and the girl wished he would open them fully. She fancied he was
putting considerable restraint upon himself. "I don't know about
Charley. He can talk better than I can for himself, but I shall miss
you all the time," he said. "This has been a revelation to me, and I
feel that it is good for me to talk to you. Then, before you came I
had a kind of bitter feeling against all my father's folks in England.
I figured they were wrapped up in their cast-iron pride, and ready to
trample on anybody who got in their way; but you have started me
thinking differently, and it seems my duty to know more of them. After
all, I am an Alton of Carnaby."
The girl smiled again. "You fancy you may have been wrong?"
The man's face flushed a little, and there was once more evidence of
the self-restraint. "Yes," he said simply. "I know I was a fool."
He might have said a good deal more, and lessened the effect, for Miss
Deringham had seen his face and read the respect in it. Its sincerity
touched her, and she felt with a vague uneasiness that it would not be
pleasant to face his contempt if he found it misplaced.
"And yet you take your father's part?" he said.
"Of course," said Alton simply. "What would any son do? But it seems
to me there might be a little allowance for my grandfather, too, and I
think he and my father have fixed up that quarrel long ago."
"They are both dead," said the girl with a little curiosity.
"Yes," said Alton, "and they kept their word, and died unyielding.
Well, I think they were each right from their way of looking at the
thing, and that being so they could only do what they did, and would
respect each other for it when they meet where the long trail ends. My
father was right in holding to the woman who loved him, and I think
Tristan Alton knew it when he left Carnaby to me."
Miss Deringham seemed thoughtful. The man's grim code of honour,
inflexible as it was primitive, caused her, for no apparent reason,
indefinite misgivings, and she made a little gesture of weariness. "I
think," she said, "it would be better if we did not talk of Carnaby,
and I was wondering if it would be possible to catch a trout if there
is a little more wind presently."
This was scarcely a correct rendering of her thoughts, for she was in
reality desirous of ascertaining whether the man would, to afford her
pleasure, thrust his work aside.
"Well," he said eagerly, "I shouldn't wonder if it would. Now, there's
the planer to fix up, but that could wait a little, and--but here's
someone coming!"
Miss Deringham was conscious of a trace of annoyance when a girl rode
out of the orchard on a wiry little pony. She was dressed neatly and
rode well, though the somewhat scanty skirt was evidently not the work
of a habitmaker and had seen lengthy service, while the plain straw hat
could not at the limit have cost more than a dollar; nor did she wear
any gloves, and her hands were brown, while her face betokened exposure
to frost and wind and sun. It was, however, a comely face, and Miss
Deringham noticed that the girl carried herself gracefully. It was
also curious that she was not wholly pleased when Alton went forward to
greet the newcomer with his hat in his hand, and, she fancied, offered
more assistance than was absolutely necessary in helping her down.
Then they entered the verandah together, and Alice Deringham smiled in
a fashion which did not pledge her to any extreme good-will when Alton
presented the stranger.
"Miss Townshead, from the ranch back yonder," he said.
Miss Deringham said something of no importance, and waited with
slightly unusual curiosity for the girl's answer, which somewhat
astonished her. The voice was nicely modulated, and the intonation
free from Western harshness and unmistakably English.
"You will come over and see us. It is a long time since we had a visit
from anybody from England," she said. "Are you pleased with this
country?"
Miss Deringham glanced at Alton. "I grow almost enthusiastic about it
at times," she said. "Its inhabitants are also especially kind."
The man did not, however, respond as he might have done. "It's a
tolerably good country," he said gravely, and then glanced at the
stranger. "Nothing wrong at the ranch, I hope, Miss Nellie?"
"No,", said the girl. "We have, however, heard that Jack is seriously
ill, and I rode over because the spotted steer has broken away, and I
found the trail led into the Somasco valley. It was one of the beasts
father was sending down to sell."
Alton became suddenly intent. "Then it has not gone far. I saw its
trail an hour ago," he said. "Well, we must head the beast off before
it gets into the thick timber under the range, and there's no time to
lose. I'll be ready in two minutes. Would you like to follow with
Charley, Miss Deringham?"
The time had scarcely been exceeded when he led a horse out of the
stable, held his hand out for Miss Townshead to mount by, and then
swung himself to the saddle. Then he and the girl swung across the
clearing at a gallop, and Alice Deringham endeavoured to assure herself
that she was not angry. It appeared that her angling was of
considerably less importance than the capture of the steer.
It was possibly for this reason that she was unusually gracious to
Seaforth, who came along just then, and though evidently in some haste,
stopped to talk to her; while when she had promised to accompany him to
witness the chase, and he strode away towards the stable, her father
sauntered out of the house and glanced in her direction whimsically.
"It occurs to me that one of us is responsible for some irregularity in
the work upon this ranch, and that the beast it a trifle uncertain in
his moods," said he.
"It is," said his daughter, "a little difficult to understand you."
Deringham pointed to the two mounted figures just entering the brush,
and the girl fancied that something had ruffled him. He could be
unpleasant when that happened.
"Alton of Somasco is a somewhat busy man, but both he and his partner
seem to have suspended their energies this morning," he said. "No
doubt wild-beast taming has its fascination, but one might fancy it was
apt to prove a somewhat disconcerting and perilous amusement."
"Yes?" said the girl in a tone of languid inquiry.
Deringham nodded. "One can never tell when the beast may revert to his
primitive instincts, and do something unpleasant," he said. "This one
is also evidently of somewhat uncertain temperament. We are told that
Una had a lion, but the effect of the story would have been diminished
if it had been recorded that the king of the forest divided his
allegiance."
Miss Deringham was now convinced that her father was not pleased. "I
have not noticed anything especially leonine about Mr. Seaforth," she
said.
"No," said Deringham dryly. "The Honourable Charley appears to be an
admirable young man of the domestic feline species, but I don't know of
any reason that would make it advisable to waste powder and shot over
him."
Miss Deringham rose languidly, but her father felt he had gone as far
as was desirable, and went back to grapple with a financial difficulty
from which he could see only one escape, while she rode away with
Seaforth, who led out the horse reserved for her use. Alice Deringham
could ride, but when they left the clearing and plunged into the bush
she found that all she had been taught in England was not much use in
British Columbia. There was no perceptible trail, and the horses
floundered round great fallen trees, and plunged smashing through
thickets of black raspberry and barberry. In places their flanks were
brushed by tall, black-stemmed fern, and where the forest was more open
treacherous gravel slipped beneath the hoofs that sank from sight
amidst the blood-red clusters of the little wineberry. After an hour
of it the girl was shaken and breathless, and she contemplated her
habit somewhat ruefully when Seaforth drew bridle. Somewhere far up on
a hill shoulder there was a smashing in the bush.
"Are you sure you have not lost the way?" she said. "It seems
impossible for horses or cattle to get through this forest."
Seaforth laughed. "The bush is really thin here," he said. "Anybody
used to it could get through at a gallop, while a good bushman could
scarcely make five miles a day walking where it's tolerably thick. I
wonder if you know that the ox was originally a denizen of the bush. I
didn't until Harry told me. It always seemed to me a tranquil beast
adapted for sober locomotion on nice green grass."
"And isn't it?" said the girl with indifference in her eyes. "Mr.
Alton is an authority on cattle?"
"Harry," said Seaforth, smiling, "is, although one might not always
fancy so, a complete encyclopaedia on everything useful. Anyway, from
the sound up yonder you will presently see some of the primitive habits
of the genus _bos_, and the spectacle may be the more interesting
because the beast will if possible head away up that valley into
fastnesses where only a prehistoric man with a tail could follow it."
Alice Deringham said nothing further and was glad of the rest. They
had pulled their horses up on the slope of a hill which formed one side
of a hollow out of which several valleys opened. There were great
trees about them, and it was only here and there a ray of sunlight
pierced the dim green shadow, while below them a stream went frothing
down a miniature canon whose banks were cumbered by fallen timber. It
was, the girl fancied, an especially difficult place for a horseman to
pick his way through.
Meanwhile the sound above grew louder, and presently an object
apparently travelling like a thunderbolt came out of the shadow. It
was, notwithstanding the speed it made, gambolling playfully, with head
tossed sideways and tail in the air, and when Miss Deringham fancied it
must turn aside for a tangled brake, went smashing straight through it.
As it emerged with an exultant flourish of head and tail two other
objects became visible behind it, and Seaforth pushed forward when the
mounted figures came sweeping down the mountain side. Here and there
they swung wide round a fallen tree, but they rode straight through
raspberry-canes and breast-high fern, and Alice Deringham wondered when
she saw that one of them was a girl. She had left her hat somewhere in
the bush, her hair streamed about her, the skirt was blown aside; but
she held on with set lips and two vivid spots of colour in her
warm-tinted face, a length or two behind her companion. He was riding
hard, and there was a red smear across his face where a branch had
smote him.
Miss Deringham turned to watch them, realizing that whatever the steer
risked, its pursuers were in peril of life and limb. Sometimes one
horse rose above fern and thicket, or twisted, apparently with the
sinuosity of a snake, in and out amidst the clustered trunks, while
once the girl lurched forward. Miss Deringham gasped, but part of the
fluttering skirt was rent away, and the little lithe figure swept on
again. The pair were, it was evident, closing with the steer, and the
latter apparently cut off from the valley it made for by the ravine.
This was not, however, to prove an insuperable obstacle, for as Miss
Deringham with difficulty edged her horse nearer, the beast charged
straight at the hollow, and dropped into it. Then, while she regarded
its capture as certain, it rose into view again, and floundered up the
almost vertical slope on the other side with no very obvious
difficulty. Miss Deringham, who found this riding down of a Canadian
steer almost as exciting as anything she had seen when following the
English hounds, regretted that the ravine with its fringe of
undergrowth and litter of netted branches must apparently put a stop to
the pursuit. Though the width was not great, no horse, she fancied,
would be expected to face it, and she watched the two figures flitting
amidst the trunks to see when they would pull up.
There was, however, no sign that they intended to do so, and Miss
Deringham gasped a little when Alton glanced for a moment over his
shoulder.
"Pull him!" his voice reached her hoarsely, and she held her breath as
she saw the man's hand move on the bridle and his heels pressed home.
The horse swung clear of the thicket, plunged with head down, flung it
up, and straightened itself again; there was a drumming of hoofs, and
man and beast had shot forward from the bank. It seemed an appreciable
time before they came down amidst the fern, and then Miss Deringham
drew in her breath with a little sibilant sigh.
"Oh!" she said softly, and there was a great smashing as man and beast
reeled through a brake on the other side.
"Yes," said Seaforth, "it was a tolerably risky thing, but it takes a
good deal to turn Harry. Where's Nellie Townshead now?"
"There," said Miss Deringham, instinctively clenching her bridle.
"Surely the girl cannot be going to try it."
"Good Lord!" said Seaforth under his breath, and the second figure
rushed with streaming skirt and hair at the gap cleared by Alton's
passage.
Then the man turned his head, and it was a moment before he looked
round again, very white in face. "Thank Heaven!" he said hoarsely.
"She's over."
Miss Deringham glanced at him curiously, and then laughed a little.
"Miss Townshead is evidently a determined young woman," she said, with
something in her manner which led Seaforth to fancy that this was not
intended as a compliment. "But what is Mr. Alton doing?"
"Getting the rope ready," said Seaforth. "It's scarcely used in this
country, but Harry once did some stock-riding on the prairie. We'll
push on a little."
It became evident as they did so that the position favoured the
pursuers now. A rock it was apparently incapable of climbing prevented
the flight of the steer in one direction, and Miss Townshead had ridden
forward ready to turn the beast if it attempted escape in another. It
stopped with lowered head as though meditating an onslaught upon her,
then wheeled again and came back towards Alton, who rose a trifle in
his stirrups, whirling the rope about his head. It shot forward
presently, uncoiling in a curve, and then the man swung backwards,
wheeling his horse, and there was a crash as the steer went down amidst
the fern.
"That should take a good deal of the friskiness out of it," said
Seaforth. "We'll go across and join them. There's a way over
somewhere."
The steer was roped to a tree when they came up with the pair, and
Seaforth noticed with some inward amusement the way in which the two
girls glanced at each other, and the contrast between them. Miss
Deringham was almost too serene, and, he fancied, might have stepped
out of a picture. Miss Townshead's cheeks were crimson, her skirt was
rent, and, though she had evidently found opportunity to effect some
alteration, loose wisps of hair still hung about her shoulders. They
were, however, of a fine silky brown, and it seemed to Seaforth, might
have been arranged in a more unbecoming fashion.
"I wonder if I might venture to congratulate you. We seldom witness
horsemanship of this description in England," said Miss Deringham, with
an inflection in her voice which Seaforth guessed the meaning of, and
seemed to bring a slightly warmer tinge into the already carmine cheeks
of the girl.
Still, she looked at the speaker with a little smile. "There is a
difference between the two countries, and the scarcity of dollars in
this one explains a good deal," she said.
Alton glanced at both of them with a slightly bewildered expression.
"Of course!" said he. "The thing's quite simple. That steer is worth
so many dollars to Miss Townshead's father, and he couldn't afford to
lose them."
Alice Deringham turned aside with a just perceptible gesture of
impatience, which Seaforth noticed and fancied he understood, though it
was not apparent to the others, and while she rode on with him, Alton
appeared thoughtful as he did something to his bridle. When he had
finished it he saw that his companion was smiling at him.
"It seems to me there are a good many things I don't know," said he.
"Of course," said the girl lightly. "Still, I don't think I would
worry over them if I were you. They are very trivial!"
Alton nodded sagely, and odd fragments of his conversation reached Miss
Deringham. "We'll send someone back for the steer," he said. "Jack's
no better?"
"No," said the girl, with a little quiver in her voice. "I am afraid
the work is too hard for him up there."
Alton seemed thoughtful. "I wonder if he would come down and do
something for me," he said. "I could find a use for another man or
two, you see."
Again the little flush of crimson crept into Miss Townshead's cheeks.
"I don't think so; he seems to fancy he can get into the C.P.R. service
when he is better."
"Well," said Alton, "I'm going to take a liberty. Jack wouldn't have
gone up yonder if you hadn't wanted the dollars?"
Nellie Townshead looked down a moment, then swiftly raised her head,
and though her fingers seemed to tighten on the bridle there was a
curious steadiness in her eyes. "There is," she said, "no use in
denying what everybody knows."
Alton nodded. "I know that kind of worry, and it's a bad one. Has
Hallam got a hold upon the ranch?"
Miss Townshead appeared astonished, and did not answer for a moment.
"I fancied you did not know, but he has," she said. "He came up to see
my father a week ago, and that is why we are selling the stock."
Alton's face darkened. "That man's of the same breed as the panther,
only the panther lets up when he's full. Well, you needn't tell me any
more. Interest's high in this country, but it's a pity your
father------"
He stopped a moment, and appeared a trifle embarrassed when the girl
regarded him with a little flash in her eyes. "My father has done his
best," she said.
"Of course!" said Alton hastily. "Well, now, Hallam wants your ranch,
and when that man wants a thing it's bad to keep him from getting it,
but it wouldn't please me to see him take the ranch. I wonder if you
can figure what his next move will be?"
The girl's fingers trembled, but there was patience and courage in her
eyes. "I am afraid I can," said she. "We shall be sold up and driven
out very shortly."
Alton shook his head. "I wouldn't count too much on that. Hallam's
bad all through, but there are one or two other men who will have a
finger in what's going to be made out of this country, and it would be
a favour if when he shuts down on you, you send word to me."
The girl did not look at the man, but rode silent for a while. "I
think I understand you, and you are very kind--but it is impossible."
"No," said Alton grimly. "You don't understand me. There's not room
enough up here for Hallam and me, and I've a deal to square off with
him already. Now when you get your notice you will send word to me?"
"Yes," said the girl, as one making a swift decision, and there was a
sudden flash of hope in her eyes.
"That is a bargain," said Alton, with the little soft laugh of his.
"Then when the deal's fixed up all the winnings will not be counted
over by Mr. Hallam."
Miss Deringham heard nothing further, and understood very little of
what had reached her, while though unusually gracious to Seaforth she
found him distinctly unresponsive.
She, however, lent Miss Townshead a hat when they reached the ranch,
and made no comment when Seaforth rode home with her. It was late that
night when the latter found Alton smoking in a somewhat dubious mood
upon the verandah.
"Is there anything worrying you?" said he.
"Oh, yes," said Alton grimly. "There's work of all kinds waiting, and
nothing done to-day. Somehow women seem to play the devil with a man's
plans, Charley."
"Yes," said Seaforth, "they not infrequently do."
"Well," said Alton, "I wouldn't mind so much if I'd pleased anybody,
but I haven't, you see. I was talking at large about something after
we'd got the steer, when Miss Nellie turned right round on me. Then I
came back here, and Miss Deringham didn't seem pleased with me."
"Did she tell you so?" said Seaforth, smiling, and Alton turned upon
him savagely.
"No, sir, she did not," said he. "Anyway, it wasn't necessary. You
understand these folks from the old country, Charley?"
"It is," said Seaforth dryly, "a tolerably bold venture to assert that
one understands anybody."
"Well," said Alton, "you know what I mean. Now do you think Miss
Deringham was vexed because she didn't get that fishing? You see she
is tolerably keen on it. Of course, if I had thought of it I might
have sent you with her."
"No," said Seaforth, smiling. "I should scarcely fancy that was the
reason, and I don't fancy the arrangement suggested would have given
Miss Deringham any great pleasure. Nor do I think I should have gone."
"No?" said Alton inquiringly.
"No," said Seaforth dryly. "I'm not Alton of Somasco--and Carnaby--you
see."
Alton regarded him sternly out of half-closed eyes. "There are jokes
that don't please me, Charley," he said, and then laughed softly. "I'm
a fool with a red-hot temper, but it's a consolation that I know a
bigger one than me."
"You need not be bashful, Harry. You mean me?"
Alton nodded as he turned upon his heel, and Seaforth watched him
meditatively. "I wish I was as sure of it as you seem to be," said he.
"Well, I'm occasionally thankful I'm not a rich man, nor much of a
beauty."