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."
THE END