The voices of the bush sang a changed song during my night walk. The
moon came out over the ridges and lit up the flagstaff, and faintly
illumined the thread of smoke ascending from the single stove-pipe
chimney of the Fort.
I walked across the furrowed fire-break, where a few pink briars
lingered, and opened the door of the low, whitewashed building, with
the lack of ceremony to which I had always been accustomed.
MacCaskill sat at his table, making entries in a big ledger. He looked
up morosely, nodded, and his big head went again over his writing.
“Three gallons fish-oil,” he muttered, speaking each word as he set it
down, “at one blanket, value four, seventy-five. Profits ain’t what
they was when furs were plentiful. Well, what’s the latest racket?”
I came over to his side and opened the sheet of paper upon the table,
smoothing the ragged edges with my flat hand.
The factor’s face changed, and he stopped drawing in his smoke, but
looked up from the table and scanned me narrowly.
“Which goes to say,” he said in a deep voice, “that you and Redpath
have been havin’ a match, and you’ve come in Number One.”
“Not a word has passed between us,” I said.
“Give me deeds every time,” muttered MacCaskill.
He brought his head nearer the table, and I waited for his next word.
“Bonanza” was that word; and then a silence came between us, until the
factor left his seat, and stood upright against the stove.
“What does it mean?” I exclaimed.
MacCaskill drew a sulphur match along the top of the stove, and let it
splutter and burn until the flame touched his fingers. Then he dropped
it unused.
“You’re twenty-one, and I’m sixty-five. You’re fresh, and I’m spoilt.
You’ve got everything before you, and all mine’s ’way behind. There’s
that difference between us.” Then he burst out: “I don’t know that a
man can get too old for this one thing. I’ve had a bad, lonely, useless
life.” He struck another match violently, flung it away, as though he
tried to throw off his weight of years. “Darn me if I don’t begin all
over again!” He came to me, his great face agitated. “Redpath asked you
to be his pard, did he? You’ve broke with him to-night; and if you want
another pard, he’s right here before you. Is it a go?”
He gave me his strong hand, and I knew that I had won a friend.
Then he spoke to me regarding Bonanza, the place of gold, my father’s
secret, while I told him of my meeting with Redpath, and of the
punishment I had given him.
“For a woman!” the factor said grimly. “Wait till you know the world,
and you’ll find that the woman comes in everywhere. Watch out when
you’re walkin’ lone in the bush, and fasten your door nights. Redpath
won’t forget that knock-down; and mind, you’re standin’ in his way all
the time.”