A TEMPTATION
Leyland had a weakness for what he termed hardening himself by
occasional feats of endurance, from which it resulted that I spent
several days in his company wandering, with a wholly unnecessary load of
camp gear upon my back, through a desolation of uncomfortably wooded
hills. Now it is not easy for a business man of domesticated habits to
emulate a pack mule and enjoy the proceeding, and when Mrs. Leyland,
after burdening her husband with everything she could think of, desired
to add a small tin bath, there was little difficulty in predicting that
our journey would not be extensive. Having a load of fifty pounds
already, I ignored the suggestion that I might carry the bath, and
hurried Leyland off before his spouse could further hamper us. One thick
blanket, a kettle, and a few pounds of provisions would have amply
sufficed, so a large-sized tent seemed to be distinctly superfluous, to
say nothing of the bag filled with hair-brushes, towels, and scented
soap.
Leyland commenced the march with enthusiasm, and certainly presented a
picturesque appearance as he plodded along in leather jacket and fringed
leggings, with the folded tent upon his shoulders and a collection of
tin utensils jingling about him. I was somewhat similarly caparisoned,
and, because it would have hurt his feelings, I overcame the temptation
to fling half my load into a creek we crossed, though this would have
greatly pleased me. A fourth of the weight would have sufficed for a
two-hundred-mile journey in the West.
"There is nothing like judicious exercise for bracing one's whole
system," panted my companion, when we had covered the first league in
two hours or so. "How a wide prospect like this rests the vision. Say,
can't we sit down and enjoy it a little?"
I nodded agreement, and we spent most of that day in sitting down and
smoking, while, as it happened, a sudden breeze blew the tent over upon
us at midnight, and anybody who has crawled clear of the thrashing
canvas in such circumstances can guess what followed. Leyland, as
generally happens, wriggled headforemost into what might be termed the
pocket of the net, and it cost me some trouble to extricate him. Next
morning he awoke with a toothache and general shortness of temper, as a
result of trying to sleep in the rain, and appeared much less certain
about the benefits to be derived from such excursions.
"If you will let me pick out the few things we really want and throw the
rest away, I'll engage that you will enjoy the remainder of the march,"
I said.
"I wish I could, but it can't be done," and Leyland, staring ruefully at
his load, shook his head. "'Twoinette's so--so blamed systematic, and if
one of those brushes was missing she'd have to start in from the
beginning with a whole new toilet outfit. Of course, you don't
understand these things yet, but you will some day. A wife with cultured
tastes requires to be considered accordingly."
I was resting on one elbow gazing up between the pine branches at the
blue of the sky, with the clean-scented needles crackling under me, and
made no answer. Nevertheless, it struck me that I might find too much
culture irksome, especially if it implied that I must carry half my
household sundries upon my back whenever I started on an expedition.
Hitherto I had not considered this side of the question when indulging
in certain roseate visions, but as Leyland spoke there opened up
unpleasant possibilities of having to stand by, a mere director, clear
of the heat and dust of effort, and pay others to do the work I found
pleasure in. Then as I reflected that there was small need to trouble
about such eventualities, a face, that was not Beatrice Haldane's, rose
up before my fancy. It was forceful as well as pretty, quick to express
sympathy and enthusiasm; and I decided that the man who won Lucille
Haldane would have a helpmate who would encourage instead of restrain
his energies, and, if need be, take her place beside him in the
struggle. Then I dismissed the subject as having nothing to do with me.
Leyland seemed loath to resume his rambles, and on the following
morning, after he had, I fancy, lain awake abusing the mosquitoes all
night, his patience broke down. "I'm getting too old to enjoy this
description of picnic as I used to," he said. "The fact is, if I mule
this confounded bric-a-brac around much longer I shall drop in my
tracks."
"Shall we turn back?" I asked him.
The tired man shook his head. "We'll strike for water, and if we can't
find a canoe anywhere you can build a raft. I wouldn't crawl through any
more of those muskegs for a thousand dollars."
I had no objections, and Leyland's comments became venomous during the
march, for the lake was distant, and the pine woods thick. He fell into
thickets, and shed his burden broadcast across the face of each steeper
descent, so that it cost us many minutes to collect it again, and once
we spent an hour in the mire of a muskeg on hands and knees in search of
a vine-pattern mustard spoon. Leyland, who became profane during the
proceedings, said his wife might consider that its loss would destroy
the harmony of a whole dinner service. At last, however--my comrade,
panting heavily, and progressing with a crab-like gait, because he had
wrenched one knee and blistered a heel--the broad lake showed up beneath
the blazing maple leaves ahead. They were donning their full glories of
gold and crimson before the coming of the frost.
"Thank heaven!" said Leyland with fervent sincerity. "I'll sit here
forever unless you can find something that will float me home."
He limped on until we were clear of the trees, and then flung himself
down among the boulders with a gasp of relief, for fortune had treated
him kindly. There was a fresh breeze blowing, and the broad stretch of
water was streaked by lines of frothy white; but we had come out upon a
sheltered bay, and a big catboat lay moored beneath a ledge. A group of
figures rose from about a crackling fire, there was a shout of
recognition, and the young man I had been introduced to as Ted Caryl
came forward to greet us.
"Just in time! The kettle's boiling; but have you been practicing for a
strong-man circus, Leyland?" he said. My companion, still retaining his
recumbent position, answered dryly: "I have been taking exercise and
diverting myself."
"So one might have fancied from your exhilarated appearance," commented
Caryl. "We can give you a passage home by water if you have had enough
of it."
"I'll go no other way if I have to swim," said Leyland grimly.
Then the younger man turned to me: "Do you happen to know anything about
seamanship?"
"I spent all my spare time as a youngster helping to sail small craft on
the English coast, and was considered a fair helmsman for my age," I
said; and Caryl patted my shoulder approvingly.
"It's a mercy, because I know just next to nothing. Put up as a yacht
club member, and bought this craft--she's a daisy--for five hundred
dollars to give the girls a sail. Brought them down, with a light fair
wind, smart enough, but though it's gone round, the thing don't steer
the way she ought to in a breeze. So I've been getting mighty anxious as
to how I'm to take them home again, and feel too scared to say so."
I looked at the craft, which was a half-decked boat, evidently fitted
with a center-board, of the broad-beamed shallow type common on the
American coast. She carried no bowsprit, her lofty mast was stepped
almost in her bows, and the combination of heavy spars, short body, and
wide, flat stern, presaged difficulties for an unskilled helmsman when
running before any strength of breeze. "I think you have some reason for
your misgivings," I said. "If the wind freshens much I should almost
recommend you to camp here all night."
We had by this time approached the fire, and I noticed, with a slight
inward hesitation, that Haldane's daughter and an elderly lady were busy
preparing tea. Perhaps it was this which prevented Beatrice from
noticing me, but Lucille came forward and greeted us. "You have arrived
at an opportune moment. Supper is just about ready, and if it is not so
good as the one you gave us at Gaspard's Trail, we will try to do our
best for you," she said.
"Have you not forgotten that evening yet?" I asked. A transitory
expression I did not quite comprehend became visible in the girl's face
when she answered my smile. It was pleasant to think she recalled the
evening of which I had not forgotten the smallest incident.
"It was something so new to me, and you were all so kind," she said.
There was dismay when Caryl announced my opinion, though the rest
decided to postpone a decision in the hope that the weather might
improve, and it seemed useless to inform them that the reverse appeared
more probable. A pine forest rolled down to the water's edge, and when
the meal had been dispatched I lounged with my back against a tree, when
Leyland came up. "You look uncommonly lazy--more played out than I. We
want you to enjoy your stay with us, and I hope I have not tired you,"
he said.
I laughed a little, because Leyland was hardly likely to tire any man
fresh from the arduous life of the prairie. "It's an oasis in the
desert, and you have made me so comfortable that I shall almost shrink
from going back," I said, truthfully enough; for, before I left, the
strain at Gaspard's Trail had grown acute.
"Then what do you want to go back for, anyway?" asked Leyland, who
during the afternoon had made several pertinent inquiries concerning my
affairs. "There are chances for a live man in the cities--in fact I know
of one or two. No doubt for a time it's experience, but it strikes me
that this cattle roasting and losing of grain crops must mean a big loss
of opportunities as well as grow monotonous."
Leyland, I fancied, had not previously noticed that Miss Haldane was
seated on a fallen log close beside us, and in the circumstances I was
by no means pleased when he turned to her. "Don't you think everybody
should make the most of all that's in them?" he asked.
Somewhat to my surprise the girl looked straight at me as she answered:
"Considering the question in the abstract, I agree with you. It seems to
me the duty of every man with talents to take the place he was meant for
among his peers instead of frittering them away."
There was an unusual earnestness in what she said, which both surprised
me and reminded me of the days in England; for Beatrice Haldane's
conversation had latterly been marked by a somewhat cynical languidness.
Nevertheless, the inference nettled me.
"Talent is a somewhat vague term; but suppose any unprofessional person
possessed it, what career among the thick of his fellows would you
recommend--the acquisition of money on the markets, or politics? Both
are closed to the poor man," I said.
It may have been fancy, but a faint angry sparkle seemed to creep into
Miss Haldane's eyes as she answered: "Are there no others? It seems to
me the place for such a person is where civilization moves fastest in
the cities. Whether we progress towards good or evil you cannot move
back the times, and it is force of intellect, or successful scheming if
you will, which commands the best the world can offer now. As an outside
observer, it seems to me that, considering the tendency towards
centralization and combinations of capital, the individual who, refusing
to accept the altered conditions, insists on remaining an independent
unit, must soon go under or take a helot's place. Don't you think so,
Mr. Leyland?"
"That's what I mean, but you have put it more clearly," said Leyland
approvingly. "I was hoping Ormesby might see it that way."
Understanding my host's manner I guessed that if I hinted at
acquiescence this would lead up to a definite offer, and it appeared
that both, in their own way, were bent on persuading me. The temptation
was alluring, when disaster appeared imminent, and I afterwards wondered
how it was I did not yield. Wounded pride or sheer obstinacy may,
however, have restrained me, for one of the most bitter things is to own
one's self beaten; but even then I felt that my place was on the
prairie. On the one hand there was only the prospect of grinding care
and often brutal labor, which wore the body to exhaustion and blunted
the mental faculties; on the other, at least some rest and leisure,
contact with culture and refinement, and perhaps even yet a vague
possibility of drawing nearer to the woman beside me. At that moment,
however, Lucille Haldane halted in front of us, and the trifling
incident helped to turn the scale. Young as she was, her views were
mine, and for some unfathomable reason I shook off what seemed a weak
tendency to yield when I met her gaze.
"It will be a bad day for the Dominion when what is happening across the
frontier becomes general here," I said. "It is the number of independent
units which makes for the real prosperity of this country, and the
suggestion that there is only scope for intellect and force of will in
the cities can hardly pass unchallenged. The smallest wheat grower has
to use the same foresight in his degree as a railroad financier, and it
probably requires more stamina to hold out against bad seasons and the
oppression of scheming land-grabbers than is requisite, say, in
engineering a grain corner against adverse markets. Then, if one gets
back to principles, does it not appear that the poorest breaker of
virgin land who calls wheat up out of the idle sod is of more use to the
community than the gambler in his produce who creates nothing?"
"There is no use arguing with any man who thinks that way," said Leyland
solemnly, and Beatrice Haldane laughed; but whether at his comment or at
my opinion did not appear.
"Here is an ally for you. You are looking very wise, Lucille," she said
languidly.
"I did not hear all you said, but I think Mr. Ormesby is partly right,"
was the frank answer. "I just stopped on my way to the boat to get some
wrappings. It soon grows chilly."
The girl refused our offers of assistance. Somebody called Leyland away,
and I was left alone, possibly against both our wishes, in Beatrice
Haldane's company. Still, it was an opportunity that might not occur
again, and I determined to turn it to good account.
"Although you expressed strong disapproval not long ago, one could have
fancied you were not speaking from a wholly impersonal standpoint and
meant to give me good advice," I said.
The spirit which had carried Haldane triumphantly through commercial
panic was not lacking in either of his daughters, and the elder one
quietly took up the challenge. "Perhaps the other could not be thrust
aside, and I have wondered whether you are wise in staking all your
future on the chances of success on the prairie. There are greater
possibilities in the busy world that lies before you now, but presently
habit and the force of associations will bind you to the soil, and you
must remain a raiser of cattle and sower of grain. Is it not possible
for the monotony and drudgery to drag one down to a steadily sinking
level?"
The words stung me. I had done my best in my vocation, and it seemed had
failed therein. Neither was it impossible that the last sentence
possessed a definite meaning, and suppressed longing and resentment
against the pressure of circumstances held me silent after I had managed
to check the rash answer that rose to my lips. Then a shout broke
through the pause which followed, and Beatrice Haldane sprang to her
feet. "Lucille has set the boat adrift! Go and help her if you can!" she
said.
A glance showed me the catboat sliding out towards open water before the
angry white ripples that crisped the little bay, for here the wind,
deflected by a hollow, blew freshly off-shore. A slight white-clad
figure stood on the fore deck, and I shouted: "Jump down and fling the
anchor over!"
"There is no anchor!" the answer reached me faintly; and I set off
across a strip of shingle and boulders at a floundering run.
The rest of the company were gathered in dismay upon a rocky ledge when
I came up, and Caryl tore off his jacket. Leyland turned to me, with
consternation in his face, as he said: "Ted must have tied some fool
knot and she's blowing right out across the lake. None of us can swim."
"It's my fault, and I'm going to try, anyway. The water cannot be deep
inside here," gasped the valiant Caryl.
I saw that, for inland waters, a tolerable sea was running where the
true wind blew straight down the lake, sufficient to endanger the
catboat if she drifted without control athwart it. There was evidently
no time to lose, and I turned angrily upon Caryl. "If you jump in here
you will certainly drown, and that will help nobody," I said.
Then, seeing some feet of water below the ledge, I launched myself out
headforemost. The ripples ran white behind me when I rose, and there was
no great difficulty in swimming down-wind, even when cumbered by
clothing; but the boat's side and mast exposed considerable surface to
the blast, and she had blown some distance to leeward before I overtook
her. It also cost me time and labor to crawl on board--an operation
difficult in deep water--but it was accomplished, and, turning to the
girl, I said cheerfully: "You need not be frightened. We shall beat back
in a few minutes if you will help me."
Lucille Haldane showed the courage she had showed one snowy night at
Bonaventure, for there was confidence in her face as she answered: "I
will do whatever you tell me, and I'm not in the least afraid."