URMSTON SHOWS HIS PRUDENCE
It was falling dusk when Reginald Urmston strolled along the little
trail through the birch bluff with one of Leland's cigars in his hand.
He had been at Prospect a week now, and had on the whole found the time
pass pleasantly, though he felt that Carrie's attitude towards him,
while no doubt the correct one, left much to be desired from his point
of view. If he had been asked exactly what he had expected from her when
he came there, he would have had some difficulty in framing a concise
answer, for he was a man who acted on impulse, without prevision, or any
great strength of purpose. Still, he had certainly not looked for the
matter-of-fact friendliness she displayed. He felt that a few hints of
regret for happiness thrown away, or, at least, a sorrowful protest or
two against the stern necessity which had separated them, would have
been considerably more appropriate, and he would have been prepared to
offer delicate sympathy.
It is also probable that he would have done it gracefully, for, although
he had not exactly shone at the crisis as a passionate lover, he had the
capacity for making a successful philanderer. Carrie, however, had
never admitted that she was either unhappy or dissatisfied with her
husband, and the farmer's indifference was somewhat galling. Leland did
not seem to resent in the least the fact that the stranger spent a good
deal of his time in his wife's company, and frequently strolled up and
down with her in the lingering twilight, between the house and the birch
bluff. It suggested that Leland had either an implicit confidence in his
wife, or a very low opinion of Urmston's attractiveness, and the latter
found neither of these surmises particularly consoling. He had certainly
loved Carrie, and fancied that he did so still.
On the evening in question, he expected to meet her, and hoped Eveline
Annersly would not, as generally happened, be there as well. He did not
like Eveline Annersly, or her little ironical speeches, for, while he
could not have complained of her active hostility, had she shown any, it
was naturally not gratifying to be made to feel that she was merely
amused with him. It was a clear, still day, and the pale green of
evening gleamed behind the birches, while their slender stems stood out
like ebony columns against the glare of smoky red on the verge of the
prairie. The coolness was exhilarating, and there was something in the
deep stillness under which the prairie rolled away, vast and shadowy,
that vaguely stirred the man. He was in a somewhat complacent mood, for
Carrie had been unusually gracious to him that day, and his cigar was
very excellent. He was thinking of her when he was startled by a soft
beat of hoofs, and, looking up, saw a mounted man come suddenly out of
the shadows.
The stranger pulled his horse up sharply, and sat at rest for a moment
or two gazing down on him. He wore a wide hat, a loose shirt above his
jean trousers, and long boots. With one hand on the holster at his hip,
he looked undoubtedly truculent.
"Leland's in the house?" he asked.
"I believe so," said Urmston, who felt a bit uneasy.
The stranger moved his hand a trifle, so that the butt of a pistol
appeared above the edge of the holster.
"Then walk straight in front of you, through the bluff, and out on to
the prairie," he said. "If you turn round, or come back in the next ten
minutes, you're going to have trouble with my partner, who is watching
you."
Urmston did not move at once. He did not think this visit promised
anything particularly pleasant to Leland, but that was, after all, not
his affair. Still, though he was not expecting either of them just then,
there was a chance that Carrie or Mrs. Annersly might enter the bluff.
He had no reason to suppose that the stranger would cause them any
annoyance if they did, but the man's appearance was far from
prepossessing.
"Well," said the latter sharply, "what in the name of thunder are you
stopping for? Hump yourself before you're sorry."
Urmston saw the pistol slide almost out of the holster, and the man's
hand move on the bridle. The gestures were suggestive, and he did as he
was bidden. Carrie, he decided, had not come out yet, or he would have
seen her. He did not stop until rather more than the prescribed ten
minutes had expired, and then found himself well out in the silent
prairie. It was almost dark now, but he thought he saw a dim object
moving down the edge of the wheat, and that he could hear the muffled
beat of hoofs. There was only one horse, however, and he realised that
the part he had played had, perhaps, not been an altogether brilliant
one. On the whole, he fancied, it would be advisable to say nothing
about it. He went back through the bluff, and came upon Carrie moving
across the space of dusty grass between it and the house.
"Do you know who it was that rode through the bluff a little while ago?"
she asked.
"No," said Urmston, as carelessly as he could, "I certainly do not."
Carrie, so far as he could make out, appeared a trifle astonished.
"Well," she said, "I thought you must have met the man. I saw him come
out and ride towards the house, but didn't seem to recognise him. Still,
I daresay he was one of our visitors' cattle boys."
"I scarcely think it's worth worrying about," said Urmston,
reflectively. "For one thing, it's too beautiful a night to waste in
thinking about a Canadian stock-rider. One would hardly imagine any of
them are sufficiently interesting to warrant it."
Carrie understood that this was probably as far as he considered it
advisable to venture, since she knew that he considered her husband a
stock-rider too. Although she was not exactly pleased, it did not seem
worth while to show her displeasure.
"One must talk of something," she said.
Urmston appeared to glance at her reproachfully. "There was a time when
you and I could be content without a word. Silence is now and then
wonderfully expressive. Thoughts are often spoiled by being forced into
clumsy speech."
"That time has gone by some little while ago," she said; and there was a
quiet decisiveness in the girl's tone that the man did not seem to
notice. "Perhaps it was our own fault, though I do not know.
Circumstances were against us, but it might have been different, had we
had the courage to take our destiny in our hands. Still, I am not
admitting that I am sorry we did not do so."
Urmston was sensible of a slightly uncomfortable feeling. It had been
borne in upon him that, had he shown himself bolder and more persistent,
Carrie might, after all, never have married Leland. Still, he did not
think it kind that she should remind him of it, if that, indeed, was
what she had meant to do.
"Those days," he said gently, "will always live with me. I have only the
memory of them to cheer me, and I cherish it as my dearest possession."
The girl did not know whether she was touched or not. She was naturally,
at least, a little sorry for him, but his self-compassionate
sentimentality was apt to become tiresome at times.
"Wouldn't it be wiser if you made an effort to keep it a little further
in the background?" she said. "It would, in the circumstances, at least,
be more appropriate."
The man dropped his voice. "Carrie," he said, "I couldn't if I wished
to. Love of one kind is indestructible. Even the fact that you were
forced into marrying another man cannot destroy it. He is, after all, an
accident."
Carrie's face had flushed, but she laughed outright Urmston's love,
indestructible as he said it was, had, as she realised now, prompted him
to do very little, while there was something singularly inapposite in
his terming her strenuous, forceful husband an accident. She felt that,
had he been in her disconsolate lover's place, he would at any cost have
broken through the encompassing difficulties.
"Ah," she said, "that was really a little ridiculous. Charley Leland is
rather unalterable, inflexible of purpose."
Urmston appeared confused, and it was, perhaps, a relief to both when
Eveline Annersly came up.
"Haven't those people got through their business yet?" asked Carrie.
"No," said the elder lady. "They were still talking as earnestly as ever
when I passed the door. I think something of importance must be going
on."
The surmise was, as a matter of fact, warranted, for that evening Leland
and his neighbours once more sat about the little table discussing the
outlaws. A little apart from them, Sergeant Grier sat intent and
upright. The windows of the big room were wide open, and the cool
evening air flowed in.
"My part is quite simple," the Sergeant said. "I shall be glad to act
upon any reliable information you may be able to put before me, and, if
it appears necessary, call upon you for assistance in heading off or
laying hands on the whisky men. In that case, you will be, for the time
being, practically police troopers. I guess it's not my business to ask
if you are acting as an organisation or not. There's nothing to stop any
citizen giving me information; in fact, it's his duty."
"The question," said one of the others, "is how far you consider it
necessary for us to go into the thing systematically, and not just
report any facts that happen to come under our notice."
"That," said the Sergeant, a trifle drily, "is for you to settle among
yourselves, but I can give you something to figure on. I reported to
headquarters that the toughs among the railroad settlements were
standing in with the outlaws, and that there was probably going to be
trouble soon. The answer was that they had no complaints from the
settlement or from any of the farmers, and that they could hardly spare
a man. If things promised to become serious, I was to report again, and,
in the meanwhile, they would try to send me two more troopers; you know
as well as I do how much I can do with them."
Leland laughed. "Oh, yes," he said. "Boys, it's quite evident that, if
we want anything done, we shall have to do it ourselves."
"You have hit it," said one of the others. "The one point is whether or
not merely to want it wouldn't be just as wise. I've had two steers
driven off since I took a hand in the fight, Nevis has had the hay
burned off his sloos, and we know what has happened at Prospect. Nothing
has gone wrong in the case of the men who left things to the police. I
guess that's significant. If the Sergeant calls me out, I'll come; but
I've no desire to go round hunting trouble."
"That," said a comrade, "sounds far more sensible than it is. The
Sergeant's troopers can't do anything. There aren't enough of them. And
there's the frontier near enough for the boys to skip out across. Well,
it may be some time before the police bosses get a move on--it usually
is--and in the meanwhile we'll have every tough in the country standing
in with the whisky men. While we lie quiet, they're going to get
bolder."
Just then Leland turned sharply in his chair, and the others, who
noticed it, leant towards the window. It was wide open and there was no
light in the room. Outside, the green transparency was just fading into
the soft blueness of early dusk. Nobody else had heard anything, but
Leland's figure was outlined against the last of the light, and there
was an ominous tenseness and expectancy in his attitude. They waited a
moment, though none of them knew exactly why, until a little square
object, which had evidently entered by the window, struck the table.
In another moment Leland had swung himself out by the narrow window,
which was some distance from the floor. Then there was a crash outside,
and the rest made for the outer door on the opposite side of the
building. There was no sign of anybody when they reached it, but two of
them heard a beat of receding hoofs. The rider did not seem to be in any
great haste, and they fancied he was rather bent upon slipping away
quietly. Then Leland appeared again, limping, and beckoned them back to
the room, where he lighted the lamp before he sat down. His face was
drawn.
"I wasn't exactly careful how I went out, and came down hard on my elbow
and my knee," he said. "It took all the running out of me, and the
fellow evidently had his horse ready. Before we could get a horse
saddled, he'd be 'most two miles away. Well, we'll see what he has sent
me, though I have a notion what it is."
He opened the little packet, and took out a pistol bullet. "That may
have been meant to weight it, or quite as likely as a hint. Now, I'll
tell you what he says."
One of them moved the lamp for him, and there was close attention as he
read the note that had been wrapped about the bullet: "'Let up before
you get hurt. You have had two warnings, but it's going to be different
with the third one. There's a man or two on your trail who mean
business.'"
He flung the note on the table with a little contemptuous laugh. "I
think it's genuine, and he means well, but I'm going on."
"That's not very clear to me," said one of his companions.
"It's quite easy. The rustlers are there for the money and aren't
anxious for trouble, though, if it's necessary, they are quite willing
to make it. That, I figure, is the view of most of them. But they had a
man killed not long ago, and it's probably different with one or two of
his friends. Unless the others freeze them off, they may undertake to
run me down for the fun of the thing."
There was a murmur of sympathy and agreement, and Leland saw that the
rest were watching him curiously.
"Oh," he said impatiently, "I'm going on."
Then they set about discussing the rumour that another lot of whisky was
being run. By the time this was over, they were all, including the man
with the misgivings, of one mind again. Still, the Sergeant knew that,
if Leland had hesitated, it was quite probable he would have looked in
vain for any support worth having from most of them. The last man had
driven away when Carrie found him sitting thoughtfully in the empty
room.
"Something has disturbed you?" she said.
Leland looked up, and there was a trace of dryness in his smile. "I have
had quite a few things to worry me lately," he said, handing her the
note. "This is merely one of them."
The girl read it, and looked at him with a perplexed frown on her face.
Its contents troubled her, for she had acquired from Gallwey and others
a good deal of information concerning the outlaws. She also knew that
Leland would, in all probability, not have given it to her, had he
reason to suppose that it could cause her any great anxiety, and the
knowledge hurt her.
"Well," she said quietly, "what do you propose to do?"
Leland smiled a little. "My dear, what would you expect me to do?"
There was a faint flash in Carrie's eyes, and she lifted her head a
trifle. "Oh," she said, "there is of course only one thing possible--to
you."
"Thank you! I'm afraid there may be just a little risk in this for my
wife as well. I didn't quite remember it at the time."
Carrie laughed. "Do you think that would count?" Then she laid her hand
upon his shoulder. "Still, Charley, you will--to please me--be very
careful?"
Leland fancied he felt her hand tremble, and thought he saw a sudden
softness in her eyes, but he could not be quite sure. Before he could
decide how to profit by it, she had turned her face aside and gone.