A CHANGE OF TACTICS
The fires of sunset were fading low down on the verge of the prairie
when I spoke for the last time with Beatrice Haldane, as it happened,
beside the splendid wheat. It was changing from green to ochre, and
there was a play of varied light athwart the rigid blades, which in its
own way emphasized the symmetry of the tall figure in pale-tinted
draperies. Miss Haldane was stately of presence, but it was symbolic of
the difference between us that while we of the prairie ever turned our
eyes instinctively towards the West, she stood looking back towards
civilization and the darkening East, with a cold green brilliancy
burning behind her head. It matched the face projected against it, which
was that of a statue, perfect in modeling, as I still think, if almost
as colorless and serene. Beatrice Haldane was very beautiful, and every
curve and fold of the simple dress was immaculate and harmonious because
it seemed a part of her.
My threadbare jean clung shapelessly about me, there was thick dust on
my old leggings and a rent in my broad hat, which trifles were, by
comparison, not without significance. Beatrice Haldane was clearly born
to take a leading place, with the eyes of many upon her, where life
pulsed fastest in the older world. I was a plain rancher, conscious, in
spite of theories concerning its dignity, of the brand of rude labor and
the stain of the soil; but at least my eyes were opened so that I had
seen the utter impossibility of a once cherished dream.
"The prairie is very beautiful to-night, and surely this grain promises
a splendid yield," she said. "I am glad that it is so, for it will leave
a pleasant memory. I shall probably never stand beside the wheat again."
This, I knew, was true. Beatrice Haldane would leave for Montreal and
Paris in a day or two, and, paying Bonaventure a farewell visit, she had
ridden over with her father, who had business with me. Strange to say, I
could now contemplate her approaching marriage with equanimity.
"There are many drawbacks, but it is a good country," I answered
thoughtfully.
Beatrice Haldane looked at me, and again I felt that she could still
draw my soul to the surface for inspection if she desired to. I also
fancied she knew her power, and wished to exercise it, but not from
pride in its possession.
"And yet you can now hardly hope for more than a laborious life and
moderate prosperity. The prairie is often dreary, and the toil almost
brutalizing. Are you still content?"
The sympathy in the voice robbed the words of any sting, and I answered
cheerfully: "It is all that you say; but there are compensations, and I
think no effort is thrown away. I can only repeat the old argument. One
can feel that he is playing a useful part in a comprehensive scheme even
in the muddiest tramp down a half-thawn furrow, and that every ear of
wheat called up or added head of cattle is needed by the world. Perhaps
the chief care of three-fourths of humanity concerns their daily bread.
Of course, our principal motive is the desire to attain our own, and you
may not understand that there is a satisfaction in the mere discovering
of how much one can do without, and, possibly as a result of this, that
one's physical nature rises equal to the strain."
"And what do you gain--the right to work still harder?" she asked. "I
can grasp the half-formed ideal in your mind, and it is old, for
thousands of years before Thoreau men enlarged on it. Still, it has
always seemed to me that the realization is only possible to the very
few, and to the rest the result mostly destructive to the intellect."
I laughed a little. "And I am very much of the rank and file; but at
least I have no hope of emulating either the medieval devotees or the
modern Hindoo visionaries. We practice self-denial from the prosaic lack
of money, or to save a little to sink in a longer furrow, and endure
fatigue more often to pay our debts than to acquire a bank balance. Yet
the result is not affected. The world is better fed."
"Yes," she said thoughtfully. "It seems that whatever your motives may
be these things possess virtue in themselves--but the virtues do not
necessarily react upon those who practice them."
"That is true," I answered. "Perhaps it is the motives that count."
Beatrice Haldane looked away towards the dying fires. "There was a time
when you would not have been content."
The wondrous green transparency had almost gone, the dew touched the
wheat, and we stood alone in the emptiness, under the hush that crept up
with the dimness from the east, and through which one could almost hear
the thirsty grasses drink. I knew now that I had never loved Beatrice
Haldane as a man usually loves a woman, but had offered an empty homage
to an unreality. Still, the semblance had once been real enough to me,
and I could not wholly hold my peace and let her go. Furthermore, both
she and her sister possessed the gift of forcing one's inmost thoughts,
and there was a power in the quiet voice stronger than my will.
"No. I once had my ambitions and an ideal," I said. "At first their
realization seemed possible, but I had my lesson. Even when I knew the
ideal was unattainable, the knowledge did not decrease its influence,
and now, while smiling at past presumption, I can at least cherish the
memory. I think you must have known part of this."
Beatrice Haldane had by knowledge attained to a perfection of
simplicity, and, while my own was either the result of ignorance or born
in me, we met upon it as man and woman--the latter too queenly to stoop
to any small assumption of diffidence.
"I guessed it long ago, and there was a time when I was pleased," she
said. "However, it was doubtless well for you that, when contact with
the world taught me what we both were, I knew it was impossible. When we
met again on the prairie, you could not see that I was not the girl you
knew in England. She had, in the meantime, bought enlightenment dearly;
though whether it or her earlier fancies were nearer the hidden truth
she does not know."
"In one respect you can never change to me," I said. "The sunny-faced
girl in England will always live in my memory."
Beatrice Haldane smiled, though the fast fading light showed the
weariness in her eyes. "Until you find the substance better than the
shadow; and she must always have been unreal. Still, we are not proof
against such assurances, and I am even now partly pleased to hear you
say so. Do you know that you have shamed me, Harry Ormesby?"
"That would be impossible," I said; and my companion smiled.
"Hold fast by your blunt directness if you are wise," she said. "I was
blinded by the critical faculty, and you rebuked me by clinging to your
visionary ideal, while I--misjudged you. I do not mind admitting now
that it hurt me, the more so when I found that Lucille, being--and there
is truth in the phrase--unspotted by the world, believed in you
implicitly. It was because of this I allowed you to speak as you have
done. I felt that I must ask your forgiveness, because we shall probably
never meet again."
Whether Beatrice Haldane was correct in her own estimate I do not know;
but she was the most queenly woman I had ever met, and I lifted the rent
hat as I said: "Circumstances betrayed me, and you could do no wrong.
Even if that had been possible, how far would one suspicion count
against all that the girl in England has done for me? Now it only
remains for us to part good friends--and with full sincerity I wish you
every happiness."
"Thank you," said Beatrice quietly; and without another word we walked
back towards the house together through the velvet dusk. I noticed that
Lucille glanced at us sharply as we entered.
"You will not forget our appointment in Winnipeg," said Haldane, as they
drove away; and I stood still long after the vehicle had melted into the
prairie. What I thought I do not remember; but it was with a dreamy
calmness that, now the worst had passed, I returned to Crane Valley.
Reluctance mingled with my anticipation when I proceeded to Winnipeg at
the appointed time. The harvest was almost ready, and a brief holiday
possibly justifiable in anticipation of that time of effort; but the
journey was long and expensive, while, after our severe economies, I had
fallen into the habit of slow consideration each time I spent a dollar.
Steel laughed when I said so, and pointed to the grain. "It's easier to
get used to prosperity than the other thing," he said. "There is plenty
money yonder to start you again. If necessary you can remember you have
earned a good time."
The sight of the long waves of deepening ochre that rolled before the
warm breeze was very reassuring, though belief came slowly, and for days
I had feared some fresh disaster. Their rhythmical rustle, swelled by
the murmur of the wheat heads and the patter of the oats, made sweet
music, for their undertone was hope, while the flash and flicker of the
bending blades presaged the glitter of hard-won gold--gold that would
set me a free man again. Then I was ashamed, and my voice a trifle
husky, as I said: "I am certainly going to Winnipeg, Steel. If it had
not been for the others the harvest would have left me in the grip of
Lane, and now that the time has come I mean to stand by them."
I boarded the cars the more contentedly that there was a note in my
pocket from Lucille Haldane. "Father tells me the time is ripe for you
and your friends to strike at last," it ran. "I want to ask you to
assist him in every way you can; and I wait anxiously to hear of your
success."
I did not understand the whole plan of campaign, but gathered that
Haldane, with the support of our prairie committee, would make a "bear"
attack on the company--which, while Lane held stock in it, had largely
financed him--and I looked forward with keen interest to the struggle.
We others had done our best with plow and bridle, not to mention birch
staff and fork; but we had hitherto acted chiefly on the defensive, and
now an attack was to be pushed home with the aid of money and a superior
intellect.
Haldane was in excellent spirits when, accompanied by Boone, he greeted
me in Winnipeg station. "I feel less rusty already, and you look several
years younger than you did a few months ago," he said. "But we have
breakfast ready, and can talk comfortably over it."
The meal was a luxurious one, and Haldane's explanations interesting.
"Mr. Boone has taken a great deal of trouble to inquire into Lane's
affairs, with the assistance of a man Dixon recommended. Considering the
difficulties, I hardly think I should have succeeded better myself," he
said.
Boone said this was an unmerited compliment; and Haldane laughed. "Well,
the result, as anticipated, is this. Lane has most of his money locked
up in mortgages which he does not wish to foreclose on immediately,
while we conclude that the rest is represented by shares in the
Territories Investment Company, which concern proposes to increase its
capital, and, as somebody has been trying to sell that stock quietly in
small lots, one may decide that he is short of money. We purpose to
scare off buyers and depreciate his shares by selling them in handfuls
as publicly as possible; or, in other words, to hammer the company."
"There are two points I am not clear about," I said. "We have not the
stock to sell; and wouldn't it be a trifle hard on innocent
shareholders?"
"We are finding out your capacities by degrees," said Haldane, with a
quizzical glance at me. "In the first place, we take the risk of being
able to procure the stock when frightened holders rush on the market. If
they don't--well, there will be a difficulty. In the second place, there
are no innocent holders, or only a very few. The corporation is a
semi-private concern--combination of second-rate sharpers of your
friend's own kidney; and the few outsiders are professional speculators
who take such risks as they come--they are only now thinking of an
appeal to the general public. Here is the latest balance sheet, and I
presume you are not anxious to see a continuance of that dividend wrung
out of your friends on the prairie."
My anger flamed up once more as I glanced at the figures. I had seen how
that profit was earned--not by the company's agents, but by careworn men
and suffering women, who toiled under a steadily increasing burden,
which was crushing the life out of them. I had also received a laconic
message from a combination of such as these: "Have paid in ---- dollars
to the B. O. M. We'll sell our boots to back you if Haldane's standing
in. Do the best you can."
Then I brought my fist down on the table as I said: "I'd walk out a
beggar to-morrow before that should happen. If this concern lives only
by such plunder, for heaven's sake let us demolish it. I can't eat
another morsel. Isn't it time to begin?"
Haldane smiled, and touched a bell. "My principal broker should be
waiting."
A little, spectacled man, with a shrill voice and insignificant
appearance, was ushered in, and, as I inspected him, Haldane's choice
reminded me of the Hebrew shepherd's sling. He appeared a very feeble
weapon to use against the giant who had oppressed us so grievously.
"Territories have been offering at several dollars' reduction," he said.
"Don't know why, unless it's the railroad uncertainty. You couldn't get
hold of one under full premium until lately."
The speaker, in spite of his declared ignorance, answered Haldane's
smile; and the latter said: "You can begin at a further five dollars
down. Come round in the afternoon and tell us how you are progressing.
Isn't there a race meeting somewhere about this place to-day?"
The broker said there was; and I was astonished when Haldane suggested
that we might as well attend it, for this part of the conflict was
evidently to be fought on wholly novel lines. We drove to the meeting,
and after the monotony of Crane Valley the sight of the light-hearted
crowd, the hum of voices and laughter, the gay dresses, and, above all,
the horses, was exhilarating. Nevertheless, it was some time before the
scene compelled my whole attention, for the issues of the business which
had brought me to Winnipeg appeared far too serious to justify such
trifling. By degrees, however, I yielded to the influence of the
stirring spectacle, and was at length amazed to find myself shouting
wildly with the rest when a handsome chestnut broke out from the ruck of
galloping horses a furlong from the post. Then, indeed, for a few
seconds I was oblivious of everything but the silk-clad figure and the
beautiful animal rushing past the dim sea of faces in the blaze of
sunshine behind, while the roar of hoofs and the human clamor set me
quivering. It was all so different from anything I had heard or seen on
the silent prairie. Boone returned presently, and I stared at the silver
coins he placed in my palm.
"You don't look satisfied, Ormesby, with the result of your few dollars.
Are you sorry I did not lay a decent stake, or have you been infected by
Lane?" he said; and I answered him dryly: "I'm sorry that, without
telling me, you staked anything at all. It is so long since I had any
money to risk on such amusements--and it does not seem fair to the
anxious men waiting on the prairie."
Haldane laughed. "It is generally wise to make the most of a pleasant
interlude, because the average man does not get too many of them. If
this strikes you as trifling, Ormesby, you will find grim enough
amusement before we are through."
It was afternoon when we returned to the city, and we recommenced the
campaign by a sumptuous lunch, during which the broker came in. "I've
been offering Territories until I'm hoarse," he said. "There was some
surprise and talking, but nobody wanted to buy; and, while it's an
honor to serve you, I don't see much of a commission in this."
"You will, if I know my opponents," said Haldane significantly. "Take
off two more dollars, and, if there are any buyers, don't let them think
you're not in earnest. You can put another of your friends on."
The broker departed and left me wondering. It struck me that to reduce
the value by open quotations should have been enough, without saddling
ourselves with contracts when we did not hold the stock; but it seemed
that cautious slowness was not Haldane's way. He next insisted on
playing billiards with me, and he played as well as I did badly, for my
fingers had grown stiff from the grip of the plow-stilts and bridle, and
we had small opportunity for such amusements on the prairie. Nothing of
importance happened during the remainder of the day, but I have a clear
recollection of how the throb of life from the busy city reacted on me
as we sat together on a balcony outside the smoking-room after dinner.
It was a hot night, and the streets were filled with citizens seeking
coolness in the open air. The place seemed alive with moving figures
that came and went endlessly under the glare of the great arc lights,
while the stir and brilliancy appeared unreal to me. The air throbbed
with voices, the clank of great freight trains in the station, and the
hum of trolley cars; while only one narrow strip of sky appeared between
the rows of stores, and that strip was barred by a maze of interlacing
wires. I felt as though I had awakened from a century's sleep on the
prairie.
"Somewhat different from Crane Valley," said Haldane, pointing with his
cigar towards the crowded wires. "I wonder how many of those are charged
with our business--it is tolerably certain that some of them are. We
have cheerfully thrown down the glove, and now the forces of fire and
air and water are all pressed into the service of spreading our
challenge across the continent. There's a mammoth printing machine in
yonder building reeling it off by the thousands of copies every hour in
its commercial reports, and those papers will be rushed east and west
to warn holders in Quebec or Vancouver to-night. Also, by this time,
Lane, wherever he is, will be spending money like water to keep the
wires humming. Feel uneasy about the explosion now that you have helped
to fire the train?"
"I feel curious both as to why you should take so much trouble to help
us, sir, and as to the enemy's first move," I said.
"To keep myself from rusting, for one thing, and because Lane is one man
too many down our way," was the careless answer. "If that does not
appear a sufficient motive I may perhaps mention another when we have
won. As to the other affair, Lane will, so long as his means hold out,
buy--or urge his friends to--while we sell. Just how far can you and the
men behind you go?"
I named a sum, which Haldane noted. "With what Boone and I have decided
to put up it will be enough if all goes well. If not--but we will not
trouble about that. This contract strikes me as a trifle too big for
Lane," he said.
I retired early, but scarcely slept all night. I felt that the struggle
would commence in earnest on the morrow, and Haldane's words had warned
me that our nerve and treasury might be taxed to the utmost before we
made good the challenge we had so lightly, it seemed to me, sent
broadcast across the Dominion.