Old Campbell, the blacksmith, had knocked off from the day's work when,
a few minutes later, Toppy stepped from the sleigh before the door of
the shop.
"Go through the shop to that room in the back," said Jerry. "You'll find
him in there." And he drove off without another word.
Toppy walked in and knocked at a door in a partition across the rear of
the shop.
"Come in," spluttered a moist, cheery voice, and Toppy entered. The old
blacksmith, naked to the waist and soaped from shoulders to ears, looked
up from the steaming tub in which he was carefully removing every trace
of the day's smut. He peered sharply at Toppy, and at the sight of the
young man's good-natured face he smiled warmly through the suds.
"Come in, come in. Shut the door," he cried, plunging back into the hot
water. "I tak' it that you're my new helper? Well--" he wiped the suds
from his eyes and looked Toppy over--"though it's plain ye never did a
day's blacksmithing in your life, I bid ye welcome, nevertheless. Ye
look like an educated man. Well, 'twill be a pleasure and an honour for
me to teach ye something more important than all ye've learned
before--and that is, how to work.
"I see ye cam' withoot baggage of any kind. Go ye now across to the
store before it closes and draw yerself two blankets for yer bunk. By
the time you're back I'll have our supper started and then we'll proceed
to get acqua'nted."
"Tell me!" exploded Toppy, who could hold in no longer. "What kind of a
man or beast is this Reivers? Why, I just saw him deliberately break a
man's leg out there in the yard! What kind of a place is this, anyhow--a
penal colony?"
Campbell turned away and picked up a towel before replying.
"Reivers is a great man who worships after strange gods," he said
solemnly. "But you'll have plenty of time to learn about that later. Go
ye over to the store now without further waiting. Ye'll find them closed
if ye dally longer; and then ye'll have a cold night, for there's no
blankets here for your bunk. Hustle, lad; we'll talk about things after
supper."
Toppy obeyed cheerfully. It was growing dark now, and as he stepped out
of the shop he saw the squaw lighting the lamps in the building across
the street. Toppy crossed over and found the door open. Inside there was
a small hallway with two doors, one labelled "Store," the other
"Office." Toppy was about to enter the store, when he heard Miss
Pearson's voice in the office, and her first words, which came plainly
through the partition, made him pause.
"Mr. Reivers," she was saying in tones that she struggled to make firm,
"you know that if I had known you were running this camp I would never
have come here. You deceived me. You signed the name of Simmons to your
letter. You knew that if you had signed your own name I would not be
here. You tricked me.
"And you promised solemnly last Summer when I told you I never could
care for you that you would never trouble me again. How could you do
this? You've got the reputation among men of never breaking your word.
Why couldn't you--why couldn't you keep your word with me--a woman?"
Toppy, playing the role of eavesdropper for the first time, scarcely
breathed as he caught the full import of these words. Then Reivers began
to speak, his deep voice rich with earnestness and feeling.
"I will--I am keeping my word to you, Helen," he said. "I said I would
not trouble you again; and I will not. It's true that I did not let you
know that I was running this camp; and I did it because I wanted you to
have this job, and I knew you wouldn't come if you knew I was here. You
wouldn't let me give you, or even loan you, the three hundred dollars
necessary for your father's operation.
"I know you, Helen, and I know that you haven't had a happy day since
you were told that your father would be a well man after an operation
and you couldn't find the money to pay for it. I knew you were going to
work in hopes of earning it. I had this place to fill in the office
here; I was authorised to pay as high as seventy-five dollars for a good
bookkeeper. Naturally I thought of you.
"I knew there was no other place where you could earn seventy-five
dollars a month, and save it. I knew you wouldn't come if I wrote you
over my own name. So I signed Simmons' name, and you came. I said I
would not trouble you any more, and I keep my word. The situation is
this: you will be in charge of this office--if you stay; I am in charge
of the camp. You will have little or nothing to do with me; I will
manage so that you will need to see me only when absolutely necessary.
Your living-rooms are in the rear of the office. I live in the stockade.
Tilly, the squaw, will cook and wash for you, and do the hard work in
the store. In four months you will have the three hundred dollars that
you want for your father.
"I had much rather you would accept it from me as a loan on a simple
business basis; but as you won't, this is the next best thing. And you
mustn't feel that you are accepting any favour from me. On the contrary,
you will, if you stay, be solving a big problem for me. I simply can not
handle accounts. A strange bookkeeper could rob me and the company
blind, and I'd never know it. I know you won't do that; and I know that
you're efficient.
"That's the situation. I am keeping my word; I will not trouble you. If
you decide to accept, go in and take off your hat and coat and tell
Tilly to prepare supper for you. She will obey your orders blindly; I
have told her to. If you decide that you don't want to stay, say the
word and I will have one of the work-teams hooked up and you can go back
to Rail Head to-night.
"But whichever you do, Helen, please remember that I have not broken--and
never will break--my promise to you."
Before Reivers had begun to speak Toppy had hated the man as a
contemptible sneak guilty of lying to get the girl at his mercy. The end
of the Manager's speech left him bewildered. One couldn't help wanting
to believe every word that Reivers said, there were so much manliness
and sincerity in his tone. On the other hand, Toppy had seen his face
when he was handling the unfortunate Rosky, and the unashamed brute that
had showed itself then did not fit with this remarkable speech. Then
Toppy heard Reivers coming toward the door.
"I will leave you; you can make up your mind alone," he said. "I've got
to attend to one of the men who has been hurt. If you decide to go back
to Rail Head, tell Tilly, and she'll hunt me up and I'll send a team
over right away."
He stepped briskly out in the hallway and saw Toppy standing with his
hand on the door of the store.
"Oh, hello, there!" he called out cheerily. "Campbell tell you to draw
your blankets? That's the first step in the process of becoming a--guest
at Hell Camp. Get a pair of XX; they're the warmest."
He passed swiftly out of the building.
"I say, Treplin," he called back from a distance, "did you ever set a
broken leg?"
"Never," said Toppy.
"I'll give you 'Davis on Fractures' to read up on," said Reivers with a
laugh. "I think I'll appoint you M.D. to this camp. 'Doctor Treplin.'
How would that be?"
His careless laughter came floating back as he made his way swiftly to
the stockade.
For a moment Toppy stood irresolute. Then he did something that required
more courage from him than anything he had done before in his life. He
stepped boldly across the hallway and entered the office, closing the
door behind him.