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. We
had lost time to make up, and vied with each other; for I had discovered
that, even in a country where all work hard, much more is done for the
master who can work himself. Pitching heavy trusses into a wagon is not
child's play at that temperature, but just then the exertion brought
relief, and I was almost sorry when Thorn went off with the lurching
vehicle, leaving me to the mower and my thoughts. The latter were not
overpleasant just then. Still, the machine needed attention, and the
horses needed both restraint and encouragement, for at times they seemed
disposed to lie down, and at others, maddened by the insects, inclined
to kick the rusty implement into fragments, and I grew hoarse with
shouting, while the perspiration dripped from me.
It was towards six o'clock, and the slanting sunrays beat pitilessly
into my face, which was thick with fibrous grime, when, with Thorn
lagging behind, I tramped stiffly beside the wagon towards my house. My
blue shirt was rent in places; the frayed jean jacket, being minus its
buttons, refused to meet across it; and nobody new to the prairie would
have taken me for the owner of such a homestead as Gaspard's Trail.
Thick dust, through which mounted figures flitted, rolled about the
dwelling, and a confused bellowing mingled with the human shouts that
rose from behind the long outbuildings.
"It's Henderson's boys bringing shipping stock along. Somebody's been
squeezing him for money or he wouldn't sell at present," said Thorn, who
rejoined me. "They'll camp here to-night and clean up the larder. I
guess most everybody knows how Henderson feeds them."
There are disadvantages attached to the prairie custom of free
hospitality, and I surmised that Henderson's stock riders might have
pushed on to the next homestead if they had not known that we kept a
good table at Gaspard's Trail. Nevertheless, I was thankful that no
stranger need ever leave my homestead hungry, and only wondered whether
my cook's comments would be unduly sulphurous. When I reached the
wire-fenced corral, which was filled with circling cattle and an
intolerable dust, a horseman flung his hand up in salute.
"We're bound for the Indian Spring Bottom with an H triangle draft," he
said. "The grass is just frizzled on the Blackfeet run, and we figured
we'd camp right here with you to-night."
"That's all right; but couldn't you have fetched Carson's by dusk
without breaking anybody's neck; and yonder beasts aren't branded
triangle H," I said.
The horseman laughed silently in prairie fashion. "Well, we might and we
mightn't; but Carson's a close man, and I've no great use for stale
flapjacks and glucose drips. No, sir, I'm not greedy, and we'll just let
Carson keep them for himself. Those beasts marked dash circle are the
best of the lot. Lane's put the screw on Redmond, and forced him to
part. 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 got
a hold on your master, too? I told him and Redmond I was saving that
strip of sweet prairie for myself."
"He will own all the country, if you bosses don't kick in time," was the
dry answer. "I don't know how ours is fixed, but he's mighty short in
temper, and you've no monopoly of unrecorded prairie. Say, it might save
your boys a journey if we took your stock along with us and gave them a
chance before this draft cleans all the sweet grass up. Redmond told me
to mention it."
The offer was opportune, and I accepted it; then hurried towards the
galvanized iron shed which served as summer quarters for the general
utility man who acted as cook. He was a genius at his business, though
he had learned it on board a sailing ship. He was using fiery language
as he banged his pans about. "It's a nice state of things when a
cattle-whacking loafer can walk right in and tell me what he wants for
his supper," he commenced. "General Jackson! it's bad enough when a
blame cowboy outfit comes down on one like the locusts and cleans
everything up, but it's worse just when I'm trying to fix a special
high-grade meal."
"I'm not particular. What is good enough for a cowboy is good enough for
a rancher any time," I said; and the cook, who was despotic master of
his own domain, jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of
the house. "Guess it mightn't be to-night. Get out, and give me a fair
show. You're blocking up the light."
I went on towards the house, wondering what he could mean, but halted on
the threshold of our common room, a moment too late. We had worked night
and day during spring and early summer, and the sparely-furnished room
was inches deep in dust. Guns, harness I had no time to mend, and
worn-out garments lay strewn about it, save where, in a futile attempt
to restore order, I had hurled a pile of sundries into one corner.
Neither was I in exactly a condition suitable for feminine society, and
Beatrice Haldane, who had by some means preserved her dainty white dress
immaculate, leaned back in an ox-hide chair regarding me with quiet
amusement. Her father lounged smoking in the window seat, and it was his
younger daughter who, when I was about to retreat, came forward and
mischievously greeted me.
"I believe you were ready to run away, Mr. Ormesby, and you really don't
seem as much pleased to see us as you ought to be," she said. "You know
you often asked us to visit you, so you have brought this surprise party
on your own head."
"I hope you will not suffer for your rashness, but you see those men out
there. They generally leave famine behind them when they come," I said.
The girl nodded. "They are splendid. I have been talking to them, and
made 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 appearance
which had displeased her; but Haldane laughed heartily before he broke
in: "Lucille is all Canadian. She has not been to Europe yet, and I am
not sure that I shall send her. She has examined the whole place
already, and decided that you must be a very----"
The girl's lips twitched with suppressed merriment, but she also
reddened a little; and I interposed: "A very busy man, was it not? Now
you must give me ten minutes in which to make myself presentable."
I was glad to escape, and, for reasons, withdrew sideways in crab
fashion, while what suspiciously resembled smothered laughter followed
me. By good luck, and after upsetting the contents of two bureaus upon
the floor, I was able to find garments preserved for an occasional visit
to the cities, and, flinging the window open, I hailed a man below to
bring me a big pail of water. He returned in ten minutes with a very
small one, and with the irate cook expostulating behind him, while I
feared his comments would be audible all over the building.
"Cook says the well's playing out, and washing's foolishness this
weather. The other pail's got dead gophers in it, and Jardine allows he
caught cookie fishing more of them out of the water he used for the
tea."
"Fling them out, and for heaven's sake let me have the thing. I'm
getting used to gophers, and dead ones can't bite you," I said, fearing
that if the indignant cook got to close quarters the precious fluid
might be spilled. Then while I completed my toilet Cotton came in.
"Perhaps I was hardly civil this morning," he commenced. "I'm out for
four days' fire-guard inspecting, and thought I'd come round and tell
you----"
"That you saw the Bonaventure wagon heading in this direction," I
interposed. "Well, you're always welcome at Gaspard's Trail, and I
presume 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't
help making the most of them," he said.
We went down together; and there was no doubt that the cook had done his
best, while Haldane laughed and his younger daughter looked very demure
when, as we sat down at table, I stared about my room. It had lost its
bare appearance, the thick dust had gone, and there was an air of
comfort about it I had never noticed before.
"You see what a woman's hand can do. Lucille couldn't resist the
temptation of straightening things for you," observed the owner of
Bonaventure. "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 the
window and shimmered like burnished gold. For a moment it struck me that
she equaled her sister in beauty; and she was wholly bewitching with the
mischief shining in her eyes. There was, however, a depth of kindliness
beneath the mischief, and I had seen the winsome face grow proud with a
high courage one night when the snows whirled about Bonaventure.
Nevertheless, I straightway forgot it when Beatrice Haldane set to work
among the teacups at the head of the table, for her presence
transfigured the room. I had often, as I sat there through the bitter
winter nights, pictured her taking a foremost place in some scene of
brightness in London or Montreal, but never presiding at my poor table
or 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 in
through the open windows.
For a time the meal progressed satisfactorily. Haldane was excellent
company, and I had almost forgotten my fears that some untoward accident
might 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 had
discarded my working boots, and Haldane, dropping his fork, looked up
sharply.
"A little beast between a rat and a squirrel, which lives in a hole in
the ground. There are supposed to be more of them round Gaspard's Trail
than anywhere in Canada," answered the trooper, incautiously. "That's
quite 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; and
then added, with an infantile attempt at humor, for which I longed to
choke him: "I'm not a natural historian, but Ormesby ought to know. I
found him not long ago in a very bad temper fishing dozens of dead ones
out of his well. Perhaps they swam too long, and were too tired to climb
out, you know."
Lucille Haldane, who had been thirsty, gave a little gasp and laid her
hand on the cup Cotton would have passed on for replenishing. Her sister
glanced 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 he
winced that this time I had got my heel well down on Cotton's toe. Then
there 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 not
Ormesby's fault, you see. It is almost impossible for anybody to keep
them out of the wells in dry weather; but nobody minds a few gophers in
this country."
Haldane had saved the situation; but his elder daughter filled no more
teacups, and both my fair guests seemed to lose their appetite, while I
was almost glad when the meal I had longed might last all night was over
and 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 you
couldn'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 man
with any taste could be held responsible for his answers when a girl
with eyes like hers cross-questions him. You really ought to cultivate a
better temper, Ormesby."
I let him go, and joined Beatrice Haldane, who had remained behind the
rest. She did not seem to care about horses and cattle, and appeared
grateful when I found her a snug resting-place beneath the strawpile
granary.
"You are to be complimented, since you have realized at least part of
your 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 of
the dusty cattle, broad stretch of prairie, barns, and buildings were
mine, and the sinewy statuesque horsemen, who came up across the levels
behind further bunches of dappled hide and tossing horns, moved at my
bidding. By physical strain and mental anxiety I had steadily extended
the boundaries of Gaspard's Trail, and, had I been free from Lane, would
in one respect have been almost satisfied. Then I looked up at my
companion, whose pale-tinted draperies and queenly head with its
clustering dark locks were outlined against the golden straw, and a
boldness, as well as a great longing, came upon me.
"It is a hard life, but a good one," I said. "There is no slackening of
anxiety and little time for rest, but the result is encouraging. When I
took hold, with a few hundred pounds capital, Gaspard's Trail was
sod-built and its acreage less than half what it is at present; but this
is only the beginning, and I am not content. Bad seasons do not last
forever, and in spite of obstacles I hope the extension will continue
until it is the largest holding on all this prairie; but even that
consummation will be valuable only as the means to an end."
Beatrice Haldane looked at me with perfect composure. "Is it all worth
while, and how long have you been so ambitious?" she asked, with a
smile, the meaning of which I could not fathom.
"Since a summer spent in England showed me possibilities undreamed of
before," I said; and while it is possible that the vibration in my voice
betrayed me, the listener's face remained a mask. Beatrice Haldane was
already a woman of experience.
"One might envy your singleness of purpose, but there are things which
neither success nor money can buy," she said. "Probably you have no time
to carefully analyze your motives, but it is not always wise to take too
much for granted. Even if you secured all you believe prosperity could
give you you might be disappointed. Wiser men have found themselves
mistaken, Rancher Ormesby."
"You are right in the first case," I answered. "But in regard to the
other, would not the effort be proof enough? Would any man spend the
best years of his life striving for what he did not want?"
"Some have spent the whole of it, which was perhaps better than having
the longer time for disappointment," answered the girl, with a curious
smile. "But are we not drifting, as we have done before, into a
profitless 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 would
have ventured to disregard her implied wishes, and I took the hint,
fearing I had already said too much. Gaspard's Trail was not yet the
finest 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, mounted
men shouting as they cantered on each flank, while one, swinging a whip
twice, raced at a gallop around the mass of tossing horns when the herd
would have wheeled and broken away from the fence in a stampede. The
earth vibrated to the beat of hoofs; human yells and a tumultuous
bellowing 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's
speed or his own nerve failed him, the beasts surged pell-mell into the
enclosure. Much as I regretted to part with them, their sale should set
me free of debt.
Then the flutter of a white dress caught my eye, and I saw Lucille
Haldane, who, it seemed, had already pressed the foreman into her
service, applauding when Thorn, cleverly roping a beast, reined in his
horse, and, jerking it to a standstill, held it for her inspection. It
no 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. She
walked close up to the untamed creature, which, with heaving sides and
spume dripping from its nostrils, seemed to glare less angrily at her,
while Thorn appeared puzzled as he answered her rapid questions, and
Haldane leaned on the rails with his face curiously tender as he watched
her. Trooper Cotton, coming up, appropriated Miss Haldane with boyish
assurance, and her father turned to me.
"My girl has almost run me off my feet, and now that she has taken
possession of your foreman, I should be content to sit down to a quiet
smoke," 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 men
who had brought in the cattle. He was a struggling rancher, without
enterprise or ability, and generally spoken of with semi-contemptuous
pity. "I'm obliged to you, Redmond, for suggesting that you would take
my draft along; but why didn't you come in and take supper with the
rest? This sort of banquet strikes me as the reverse of neighborly," I
said.
The man fidgeted as he glanced at the dirty handkerchief containing
eatables beside him. "I figured you had quite enough without me, and I
don't feel in much humor for company just now," he said. "This season
has hit me mighty hard."
"Something more than the season has hit him," commented Haldane, as we
proceeded. "If ever I saw a weak man badly ashamed of himself, that was
one. You can't think of any underhand trick he might have played you
lately?"
"No," I answered lightly. "He is a harmless creature, and has no
possible reason for injuring me."
"Quite sure?" asked Haldane, with a glance over his shoulder as we
entered the door. "I've seen men of his kind grow venomous when driven
into a corner. However, it's cool and free from dust in here. Sit down
and try this tobacco."
Haldane was said to be a shrewd judge of his fellowmen, but I could see
no cause why Redmond should cherish a grudge against me, and knew he had
spoken the truth when he said the seasons had hit him hardly. It was
currently reported that he was heavily in debt, and the stock-rider had
suggested that Lane was pressing him. When Haldane had lighted a cigar
he 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 that
the paper contained a cleverly drawn map of our vicinity, and Haldane
nodded.
"To tell the truth, I hardly expected it was. Some of your recent
visitors must have dropped it, and as my daughter found it among the
litter during the course of her improvements, and asked whether it
should be preserved, I could not well help seeing what it was. Look at
the thing again, and tell me what you conclude from it."
"That whoever made it had a good eye for the most valuable locations in
this district," I answered, thoughtfully. "He has also shaded with the
same tint part of my possessions in Crane Valley."
"Exactly!" and Haldane gazed intently into the blue cigar smoke. "Does
it strike you that the man who made the map intended to acquire those
locations, and that, considering the possible route of the railway, he
showed a commendable judgment?"
"It certainly does so now," I answered; and Haldane favored me with a
searching glance. "Then when you discover who it is, keep your eyes on
him, 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 take
Haldane into my full confidence; but misguided pride forbade it, and we
smoked in silence until the opportunity was lost, for he rose, saying:
"No peace for the wicked; the girls are returning. Great heavens! I
thought the child had broken her neck!"
While Thorn went round by the slip-rails, a slender, white-robed figure
on a big gray horse sailed over the tall fence and came up towards the
house at a gallop, followed by the startled foreman. Haldane, whose
unshakable calm was famous in Eastern markets, quivered nervously, and I
felt relieved that there had been no accident, for it was a daring leap.
Then, while Cotton and Beatrice Haldane followed, Lucille came in
flushed and exultant.
"We have had a delightful time, father, and you must leave me in charge
of Bonaventure when you go East," she said. "But where did you get the
lady's saddle, Mr. Ormesby?"
"It is not mine," I answered, smiling. "It belongs to my neighbor's
sister, Sally Steel. She rode a horse over here for Thorn to doctor."
I regretted the explanation too late. Steel was a good neighbor, but
common report stigmatized his sister as a reckless coquette, and by the
momentary contraction of Beatrice Haldane's forehead I feared that she
had heard the gossip. If this were so, however, she showed no other sign
of it.
When a delicious coolness preceded the dusk it was suggested that Cotton
should sing to us, and he did so, fingering an old banjo of mine with no
mean skill. I managed to find a place by Beatrice Haldane's side, and
when the pale moon came out and the air had the quality of snow-cooled
wine, her sister sang in turn to the trooper's accompaniment. I
remember only that it was a song free from weak sentimentality, with an
heroic undertone; but it stirred me, and a murmur of voices rose from
the shadows outside. Then Foreman Thorn stood broad hat in hand, in the
doorway.
"If it wouldn't be a liberty, miss, the boys would take it as an honor
if you would sing that, or something else, over again. They've never
heard nothing like it, even down to Winnipeg," he said.
The girl blushed a little, and looked at me. "They were kind to me. Do
you really think it would please them?" she asked.
"If it doesn't they will be abominably ungrateful; but although we are
not conventional, the request strikes me as a liberty," I said, noticing
that her sister did not seem wholly pleased.
"Tell them I will do my best," was the answer, and, after a conference
with Cotton, Lucille Haldane walked towards the open door. There was no
trace of vanity or self-consciousness in her bearing. It was pure
kindliness which prompted her, and when she stood outside the building,
with the star-strewn vault above her, and the prairie silver-gray at her
feet, bareheaded, slight, and willowy in her thin white dress, it seemed
small wonder that the dusty men who clustered about the wire fence swung
down their broad hats to do her homage.
Perfect stillness succeeded, save for sounds made by the restless
cattle; then the banjo tinkled, and a clear voice rang out through the
soft transparency of the summer night: "All day long the reapers!"
There was a deep murmur when the last tinkle of the banjo sank into
silence, a confused hum of thanks, and teamster and stock-rider melted
away, and Lucille Haldane, returning, glanced almost apologetically at
me.
"I just felt I had to please them," she said. "Even if you older people
smile, I am proud of this great country, and it seems to me that these
are the men who are making it what it will some day be. Don't you think
that we who live idly in the cities owe a good deal to them?"
Haldane laid his hand caressingly on his daughter's arm. "Impulsive as
ever--but perhaps you are right," he said. "In any case, it will be
after 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 harness
the spirited team, while, in spite of Cotton's efforts, Thorn insisted
on handing my youngest guest into the vehicle; and it was with some
difficulty I exchanged parting civilities with the rest as the vehicle
rolled away amid the stockmen's cheers.