“You’re a neutral, eh? Well, I don’t hold wi’ neutrality, which jest
means scrappin’ wi’ everyone. I like to scrap for me own party.”
“Do I mind Joey Fagge? Why, course I do. There ain’t any old-timer who
can’t tell you something ’bout him. He was the cutest ole Sam-Peter
west, and they tell how he could smell out gold, same as these miracle
chaps down south fetch water outer the ground, or shoot it outer the
sky, or some such durned trick. No one knows where he finished, though
I’ve heard tell how he got caught in a storm on this very lake and was
drownded.”
“Did he die rich?”
“Ever heard of a miner who did?” said the captain, laughing hoarsely.
“Last time I saw Joey he was flyin’ off the handle in Main Street,
Fort Garry. Seems some American chap had bested him upon a real-estate
bargain, an’ the old man took that sort of thing bad. He was a
good-natured ole chap too. I know that, ’cause I was in Garry time of
the boom, and I know a yarn if you want to listen.”
The mate was besieging my ear, but my attention was not for him. I
edged towards Bob Lennie, that I might hear all I could concerning the
man my father had been accused of murdering.
“A young Englishman came inter Garry ’bout the middle of the fun,” went
on the captain. “Ye see, he fancied he was goin’ to look out for a job,
but when he saw the cash an’ champagne-water a-flowin’ around, an’
found lots o’ folks happy to stand him drinks and leave him the change
if he wanted it, he started to quit his thoughts of work, an’ surmised
he’d struck an almightily soft way of living. Time came, of course,
when he found himself gettin’ left dry on the rocks, an’ as he hadn’t
near enough at the week-end to fix up his hotel bill, he nat’rally
walked into the bar at mornin’ wi’ the idea of runnin’ outer what he
_had_ got. After takin’ a doctor’s prescription, he moved ’way up the
street, spoilin’ for excitement, an’ presently he pulled up at Central
Hall, where a big real-estate sale was going on. The boy’s brain must
have ben a bit in wool, ’cause he started biddin’ for a parcel of land,
and sudden-like the lot was knocked down to him. D’rectly he found the
other fellers had quit, you can believe me he made back to the hotel,
to find out a cool place to set down in; but call me what you like,
Mac, if a chap didn’t come round, jest as fast as his legs would bring
him, to offer to take the property off the boy’s hands at the price
it had ben knocked down. And he hadn’t time to call this chap his
brother before up came another, wi’ two or three more ’most tumblin’
after him, an’ every one cappin’ the offer of the man before him. A
boom had struck that bit of property sudden, an’ it had ben knocked
down before the bis’ness fellers could get around to Central Hall.
Course the young chap was ready to scream, but he had the sense to
pretend hatin’ to part wi’ the property, an’ he hung on until he got a
wonderful big price, they say. Nobody worried over a few extra hundreds
those days. Well, I saw him later on, an’ old man Fagge was drinking
champagne-water wi’ him, an’ talkin’ to him like a father, an’ advisin’
him to stuff his valise, an’ make east outer the racket, before he
flung away that pile he’d jest made by the biggest and almightiest hunk
of luck outside creation.”
“Did he go?” I broke in.
“I guess so,” said Bob Lennie. “Anyhow, I never saw him around no more.
Now, I call that real good of ole Joey to advise that young fool to get
home, when he’d the brain to get all that pile inter his own pocket.
Put that down on the credit side when anyone starts slingin’ things
’gainst old man’s character, I say.”
At the Tecumseh House, where Father Lacombe was also staying, we learnt
at dinner that the priest was unwell.
“Got what he calls a chill,” announced the proprietor, adding, “He can
keep it while he stops here. He won’t spend nothing for the good of the
house.”
After the mid-day meal we went up to the room which we shared between
us, closed the door, and sat on our respective shake-downs, there being
no chairs, to discuss business. We had brought over from the Yellow
Sands store the greater part of our supplies and tools, but there were
still necessary articles to be added to our packs, and these were all
obtainable at Gull. MacCaskill was paying my expenses as well as
his own, and now that I began to understand the meaning of the thin
slips of paper which he smoothed and fingered so deliberately, I felt
uncomfortable at being dependent upon his savings, the more so when he
said, “We’ll want to be careful, Rupe. The bank ain’t any too muscular.”
I suggested that we should camp out upon the mainland for the remainder
of our time; but my partner demurred, because he thought it advisable
to watch and wait in Gull.
“You’ve got brains, boy,” the factor went on.
“Where do you say Redpath is?”