NASMYTH GOES AWAY
Mrs. Acton was sitting on the veranda next morning when Nasmyth,
fresh from a swim in the deep cold water of the inlet, came up
across the clearing. It had brought a clear glow into his bronzed
skin and a brightness to his eyes, and as he flung a word to a man
who greeted him, his laugh had a clean, wholesome ring. He walked
straight toward the veranda, and Mrs. Acton, sitting still, favoured
him with a very keen and careful scrutiny. He was dressed in light
flannels, which, she admitted, became him rather well; but it was
the lithe gracefulness of his movements that she noticed most. His
easy, half-whimsical manner had their effect on her; they won her
favour. He was the kind of guest she had pleasure in welcoming at
Bonavista.
He went up the veranda stairway, and, stopping near where she was
sitting, looked down at her with a curious little glow in his eyes.
She started, for she had not expected to see it there so soon.
"You seem unusually satisfied with everything this morning," she
observed. "There is probably some cause for it?"
Nasmyth laughed. "I believe I am. As I dare say you have noticed,
tranquil contentment is one of my virtues. It is, however, one that is
remarkably easy to exercise at Bonavista."
"Still, contentment does not, as a rule, carry a young man very far in
this country. In fact, it is now and then a little difficult to
distinguish between it and something else that is less creditable to
the man who possesses it."
Nasmyth smiled good-humouredly. "Well," he replied, "I have discovered
that if you worry Fortune too much she resents it, and flies away from
you. It seems to me there is something to be said for the quietly
expectant attitude. After all, one is now and then given much more
than one could by any effort possibly deserve."
Mrs. Acton noticed the faint ring in his voice. "Ah," she said, "then
something of that kind has befallen you? Hadn't you better come to the
point?"
Nasmyth became grave. "Madam," he said, "I have a confession to make.
I am very much afraid I lost my head yesterday, and I should not be
astonished if you were very angry with me."
He spoke with a certain diffidence, and Mrs. Acton, who straightened
herself in her chair, watched him steadily while he made his
confession. He paused with a gesture of deprecation.
"In one sense, it is a preposterous folly, but I am not quite sure
that folly is not now and then better than wisdom," he added. "It has
certainly proved to be so in my case."
"No doubt." Mrs. Acton's tone was suggestive. "It is, however, Miss
Hamilton I am most interested in."
Nasmyth spread one hand out forcibly. "I want you to understand that
she is absolutely free. I have only told you because you once
mentioned that you considered her a ward of yours. Nothing will be
said to anybody else, and, if she should change her mind, I will not
complain. In fact, I have decided that it would be most fitting for me
to go away."
"I think," asserted Mrs. Acton, "you have been either too generous or
not quite generous enough. The trouble with men of your kind is that
when for once they take the trouble to reflect, they become too
cautious."
"I'm afraid I don't quite grasp the point of that."
"You should either have said nothing, which is the course you ought to
have adopted, or a little more. I fancy Violet would have been just as
pleased if you had shown yourself determined to make sure of her."
Nasmyth stood silent, and Mrs. Acton, who surveyed him again with
thoughtful eyes, was not surprised that he should have appealed to the
girl's imagination. The man was of a fine lean symmetry, and straight
of limb. The stamp of a clean life was on him, showing itself in the
brightness of his eyes and his clear bronzed skin, while he had, as
Wisbech had said, the classical Nasmyth features. These things, as
Mrs. Acton admitted, counted for something, while the faint lines upon
his face, and the suggestive hardness that now and then crept into it,
were, she decided, likely to excite a young woman's curiosity.
"Well," she said, "I feel myself considerably to blame, and I may
admit that I had at first intended to make my husband get rid of you.
I really don't know why I didn't. You can make what you like of
that."
Nasmyth bowed with a deferential smile, and she laughed.
"Still," she said, "you must go away. Violet must be free to change
her mind, and, after all, it's consoling to reflect that she has not
seen so very much of you yet. In one way, it would please me if she
did. It would free me of a rather heavy responsibility."
She stopped a moment, and looked at him with softening eyes. "Go and
run the water out of that valley, or do anything else that will make a
mark," she advised.
Nasmyth's face was set as he replied: "If the thing is in any way
possible, it shall be done. I think I will go into Victoria again
to-day."
He turned away and left her, and it was an hour later when she came
upon Violet sitting alone in a shady walk beneath the pines. She
looked at the girl severely.
"If I had been quite sure of what was going on, I should have sent
that young man away," she remarked. "As it is, I am very glad that he
is going to Victoria."
Violet slipped an arm about Mrs. Acton's neck and kissed her shyly.
"You would never have been so cruel, and now you are going to be my
friend," she said. "I don't want him to go back to that horrible
canyon."
Mrs. Acton smiled. "I almost feel that I could shake both of you, but
I suppose I shall have to marshal my forces on your behalf."
She set about her plans that evening, when she invaded Acton's
smoking-room, and her husband listened to her with a little dry
smile.
"I guess this is about the first time I have ever known you to do a
real foolish thing," he observed.
"Well," said Mrs. Acton, "it is, perhaps, to my credit that I have
done one now. Anyway, I like the man."
Acton nodded. "Oh, yes;" he agreed, "that's quite comprehensible.
There's a good deal of tone about him, but except with women that's
not a thing that counts in this country. It's the bulldog grip and
grit that goes farthest here--anyway, when a man has no money behind
him."
"You wouldn't consider Nasmyth a weak man?"
"Not in one way. When he's right up against it, he'll stiffen himself
and fight, but when the strain slackens a little his kind are apt to
let go too easily."
This, as a matter of fact, was more or less correct, but Mrs. Acton's
intention was not to discuss Nasmyth's character, and she smiled at
her husband.
"Well," she announced; "I expect you to take a hand in the thing."
Acton's gesture was expressive of resignation. "I guessed it. However,
it seems to me that young man has quite enough friends to give him a
shove here and there already. To begin with, there's Wisbech."
"What would Wisbech do?"
"Not much." And Acton smiled understandingly. "He means to let his
nephew feel his own feet. He's a sensible man. Then there's that man
Gordon from the Bush, and it seems I'm to do my share, too. Guess if I
was Nasmyth, I'd say 'thank you,' and go right ahead without listening
to one among the crowd of us."
"That," Mrs. Acton said, "isn't quite the question. I think I pointed
out what I expect from you."
Acton's eyes twinkled. "You did," he assured her. "I'll try to set
things in train the first time I go down to the city."
This was somewhat vague, but Mrs. Acton was satisfied. Nevertheless,
she said nothing to Nasmyth on the subject, and next afternoon he left
Bonavista for Victoria. A day or two later he called by appointment at
the office of a certain land exploitation agency, and found Hutton
waiting for him. Hutton, who sat with his elbows on the table, pointed
to a chair.
"You have taken my view of the thing?" he said in a questioning tone.
"If you'll sit down a minute, I'll call my clerk in, and he'll get the
papers ready."
Nasmyth smiled. "I don't think you need trouble to do that just yet.
You see, I haven't the least intention of closing with your offer."
It is just possible that Hutton had expected this, but, in any case,
he betrayed no astonishment. He leaned forward, regarding his visitor
with an almost expressionless face.
"Then," he returned, "I'll hear your proposition."
"What do you think of the one I had the pleasure of making you some
time ago?" Nasmyth inquired.
"Quite out of the question."
Nasmyth smiled. "That," he remarked, "is in one sense a pity, as I
couldn't repeat it to-day. If we are to do business together, I should
have to ask you for a considerably larger share of the profit. In
fact, I was wondering if you could see your way to offer half as much
again."
Hutton gazed at him with sardonic amusement. "Oh," he replied, "has
somebody left you a fortune, or are they going to run a railroad
through that valley?"
Nasmyth sat silent a moment or two, and it happened that his easy
indifference served him tolerably well. Had he been a keener man, the
anxiety to get about his work in the canyon, of which he was certainly
sensible, might have led to his undoing; but he was not one who often
erred through undue precipitancy. The waiting fight was, perhaps, the
one for which he was particularly adapted. If anything, he was rather
too much addicted to holding out his hand, and he realized that it
behooves the man without capital to be particularly wary in his
negotiations with the one in possession of money. His recent interview
with Violet Hamilton also had a stirring effect on him, and now he sat
quietly prepared to hold his own.
"No," he declared, "there has been no particular change in my affairs.
I have only been thinking things over, and it seems to me I ought to
get the terms I mentioned."
"Then you had better try. It won't be from any of the accredited land
agencies."
Nasmyth noticed the faint ring in his companion's voice. This, it
seemed to him, was not bluff. The man, he believed, meant what he
said.
"You seem quite sure of it," he observed.
As a matter of fact, Hutton was, but he felt annoyed with himself.
"Well," he said, "I naturally know what they would think of any
proposition like the one you made me. Anyway, as I suggested, all you
have to do is to try them."
Again Nasmyth, conscious that his companion was unobtrusively
watching him, sat silent a moment or two. He knew that if he broke
with Hutton he might have considerable difficulty in raising the money
he required from any corporation interested in such matters in that
city; but he had also another plan in his mind. He was far from sure
that the scheme would prove successful, and it was at least certain
that it would cost him a good deal of trouble to carry it out.
"Then I don't think I need keep you any longer," he told Hutton after
a long pause. "I'll leave the thing over for a day or two, and you can
send across to my hotel if you wish to discuss it again."
He rose and reached out for his hat, and Hutton, who watched him cross
the room, was once or twice on the point of calling him back. Hutton
did not speak, however, since he fancied that Nasmyth would presently
return of his own accord--which was an expectation that proved
unwarranted.
The office was on the second floor of a big stone building, and, as he
descended the stairway, Nasmyth fancied he caught sight of Martial in
the entrance-hall. Before he could be quite sure, the man turned down
a corridor, and Nasmyth, who did not trouble himself about the matter,
went out into the street. He was not altogether satisfied that he had
done wisely, but he meant, at least, to wait until events should prove
him wrong.
A few minutes later, Martial strolled into the office where Hutton
sat, and smiled at him suggestively. He was also, as Acton had once
told Nasmyth, interested in the land exploitation business, and it was
evident that Hutton had expected him.
"Nasmyth has been here," Martial observed; "I saw him on the stairway.
I suppose you got hold of him?"
Hutton's gesture was forcibly expressive of annoyance. "As a matter of
fact, I didn't," he confessed. "The man's either considerably smarter
than I gave him credit for being, or a thick-headed, obstinate fool.
The one's as hard to handle as the other. I don't know which he is,
and it doesn't greatly matter. The result's the same."
"I guess it's the latter;" and Martial laughed. "Well, since you can't
come to terms, have you any notion what his programme is?"
"It's not a sure thing that he has one. Anyway, he didn't mention it.
We'll let him wait a day or two. It's quite likely he'll try the
Charters people."
Both of them smiled, for it was then not an unusual thing for the men
interested in such affairs to put their heads together and take a
joint hand in any deal that seemed to warrant it, and when they did
so, the results were not, as a rule, encouraging to the outsider.
Martial looked at his comrade suggestively.
"I had a talk with Charters yesterday," he said. "He told me that if
there was anything in it, he didn't expect us to let the thing go."
Hutton thought for a moment. "One could sell quite a few ranches in
the valley; but it's going to cost considerable to run the water out,
and I can't quite put my hand on anybody I'd feel like trusting with
the work in the canyon. It's going to be difficult. Besides, Nasmyth
has what you might call a first option on the land. Nobody else seems
to want it, and the Crown people have evidently given way on a point
or two. It's a sure thing they'd make no concession if we show our
hands." He broke off for a moment, and flung a quick glance at his
visitor. "You don't like the man?"
"I don't," said Martial--"that's a solid fact. Still, it's not going
to count for much. This"--and he waved his hand--"is a matter of
business."
He sat still for a moment or two, with a curious look in his face; for
he had called at the hotel Acton's party had visited on the night that
he had endeavoured to crawl unobserved on board the _Tillicum_. He had
no difficulty in discovering that Mrs. Acton and Miss Hamilton had
spent the night there, which made it evident that the girl could not
have been on board the steamer. He had, however, not made the
inquiries until business took him to the hotel several weeks
afterwards, and Acton's manner, when they met in the city, convinced
him that the schooner men had been communicative. On thinking the
matter over, it became clear that Nasmyth and the skipper had played a
trick on him; and, since it had cost him Mrs. Acton's good-will,
without which he could not approach Miss Hamilton, he cherished a
bitter grievance against Nasmyth.
"Well," he inquired, "in case he tries to raise the money elsewhere,
what do you suggest?"
"I guess we'll let him try," answered Hutton. "He's not going to raise
much when things are humming and every man with capital is putting it
into mines and mills. Besides, the work in the canyon's evidently a big
undertaking, and it's going to run into a long bill for labour. A
thing of that kind usually costs four times as much as the man who
starts it figures. Well, we'll leave him to it, and when his money
runs out we'll chip in."
Martial laughed. "That's very much my notion. Let him do the work, and
then jump in and put up our dummies to locate all the land he can't
take hold of. Once we get a ranch or two recorded, there would be a
dozen ways we could get a grip on him. Between us and Charters, we
ought to break him."
They smiled at each other, but in a moment or two Hutton looked
thoughtful again.
"You want to understand," he said, "it's not my business to break
Nasmyth. It's the money I'm out for. In fact, if there's an easier way
than the one I suggested, I'm going to take it; and with that in view,
I'll send up a man or two I can rely on to investigate."
"If they get crawling round that canyon and up and down the valley, it
will set the blame settlers talking. We want the thing run quietly,"
Martial cautioned.
"I guess it can be done," replied Hutton. "They'll go camping out for
pleasure. In fact, to make the thing more like it, I'll send them
fishing." Martial rose. "Anyway," he said, "I'll leave it with you in
the meanwhile."