At a quarter to eight next morning Garth was waiting again in the
parlour of the Bristol Hotel. Promptly to the minute Natalie came
sailing in, in her own inimitable way, walking all of a piece, with a
sweep like a banner, Garth thought. When he saw her, his last doubt of
the reality of this intoxicating journey vanished. She bore no trace
now of the seriousness of the night before; all smiles and red-cheeked
eagerness, she radiated the very joy of being.
"Enter Mrs. Pink!" she cried.
She had a brown valise, a fat bundle, a flat, square package wrapped in
paper, a coat and a parasol.
"You said trunks were taboo," she explained. "I only had one valise and
I couldn't nearly get everything in. Indeed I sat up half the night
studying how little I could do with."
"We'll get you a duffle-bag at the Landing," he said.
"Am I suitably dressed?" she demanded, showing herself.
Garth smiled. She was perfection; how could he blame her? She had
interpreted his suggestions as to sober, serviceable clothes, in a
diabolically well-fitting suit of brown, the colour of her hair. At the
wrists and neck of her brown-silk waist were spotless bands of white;
and on her head was a dashing little brown hat with green wings. She
exhibited square-toed little brown boots as an evidence of exceeding
common sense; and was pulling on a pair of absurdly small boy's gloves.
This most suitable costume for the North was completed by a brown-silk
parasol.
"All in place and well tied down," she announced. "Nothing to fly or
catch!"
Garth pictured to himself the effect likely to be created in the
wilderness by this adorable acme of the feminine, with something between
a smile and a groan.
They walked to the post office, quaffing deep of the delicious morning
air, Garth glancing sidewise at his exuberant companion, and wondering,
like the old lady in the nursery rhyme, if this could really be he. It
was a day to make one walk a-tiptoe; the sky overhead bloomed with the
exquisite pale tints of a Northern summer's morning; and the bricks of
Oliver Avenue were washed with gold.
Natalie's face fell a little at the sight of the stage-coach; for it
had nothing in common with the imagined vehicle of romance except the
four horses; and they were but sorry beasts. In fact, it was nothing
but a clumsy, uncovered wagon, which had never been washed since it
was built; and was worn to a dull drab in a long acquaintance with the
alternating mud and dust of the trail. Behind the driver's seat was a
sort of well, for the mail bags and express packages; and behind that,
two excruciatingly narrow seats for the passengers, running lengthwise
between the rear wheels. The entrance was by a step at the tail-board.
Everything awaited the word to start. The driver, whip in hand, stood
by the front wheel surrounded by a group of idlers; and his two great
mongrel huskies, squatted on the pavement with expectant eyes on their
master. Garth helped Natalie into the body of the wagon; and, climbing
in after her, disposed her baggage with his own already in the well. The
eyes of the driver and all his satellites were promptly transferred in
wide wonder to the girl with the green wings in her hat. Garth, with a
keen sense of difficulties ahead, was indignant and uncomfortable; but
Natalie, serenely conscious that everything was in place, dropped her
hands in her lap, and chatted away, as if quite unaware of her
conspicuousness.
Garth had put Natalie in the right-hand corner of the little cockpit.
Another woman passenger was already in place opposite; and the aspect of
this lady made an additional element in his uneasiness. She, too, was
gotten up bravely according to her lights. She seemed something under
forty, tall and angular; her hair, a crass yellow, was tied with a large
girlish bow of black ribbon behind; and in her cheeks she had crudely
striven to recall the hues of youth. Around her long neck another black
ribbon accentuated the scrawny lines it was designed to hide; and on
top of all she wore a wide black hat, which had a fresh yet collapsed
effect, as if it had long been cherished under the lid of a trunk. Her
knees touched Natalie's, and Garth's gorge rose at her nearness to his
precious charge--and yet the antique girl greeted them with a sort of
anxious, appealing smile, which disarmed him in spite of himself.
Promptly at eight o'clock the door of the post office was opened; and
the last bag of mail was thrown into the stage. Still the driver made no
move to climb into his seat; and Garth, becoming restless as the minutes
passed, got out and approached him.
"Good morning, driver," he said, while the bystanders stared afresh.
"What's the delay?"
He gazed at Garth with a mild and cautious blue eye; and spat deliberately
before replying. He was one of those withered little men, with a shock of
grizzled hair, and deeply seamed face and neck and hands, who might be
forty-five or seventy. As it turned out, Paul Smiley was within three
years of the latter figure. He had on a pearl Fedora very much over one
ear, a new suit of store clothes with a mighty watch chain, and new boots,
which seemed like little souls put to torment--they screeched horribly
whenever he moved.
"I couldn't start off and leave Nick Grylls," he said deprecatingly. "He
has spoke for two seats."
Garth was sensible that he was hearing a great man's name.
"I tell you it ain't often Nick Grylls travels by the stage," continued
Smiley, addressing the bystanders impressively. "He hires a rig and a
team and a driver to take him to the Landing, _he_ does."
"Who is this Mr. Grylls?" asked Garth, pursuing the reporter's instinct.
"Don't know Nick Grylls!" exclaimed old Paul, exchanging a wondering
glance around the circle. "You _must_ be a stranger! Nick Grylls is a
wonderful bright man, wonderful! He's the biggest free-trader in the
North country; trades down Lake Miwasa way. Wonderful influence with the
natives; does what he wants with them. I tell you there ain't much north
of the Landing Nick Grylls ain't in on. Here he comes now! All aboard!"
As Garth resumed his seat by Natalie he saw a burly, broad-shouldered
figure hurrying along the sidewalk; he saw under the wide, stiff-brimmed
hat, a red face with an insolent, all-conquering expression, and fat
lips rolling a big cigar. There followed after, a young breed staggering
under the weight of a Gladstone bag, which matched its owner. Arrived at
the stage, Nick Grylls flung a thick word of greeting to the bystanders,
and taking the bag from the boy, threw it among the mail bags as one
tosses a pillow; and climbed into the seat by the driver. The breed
sprang on the step behind; another passenger took the place opposite
Garth; old Paul cracked his whip and shouted to his horses; the dogs
leaped and barked madly; and the Royal Mail swung away to the North
with its oddly assorted company.
As they rattled through the suburbs the fat back on the front seat
shifted heavily; and the red face was turned on them.
"Hello, old Nell!" shouted Nick.
The woman simpered unhappily. "How's yourself, Mr. Grylls?" she
returned.
"Fine!" he bellowed from his deep chest.
This little manoeuvre in the front seat was merely for the purpose of
obtaining a prolonged stare at Natalie. The insolence of the little,
swimming, pig-eyes infuriated Garth. The young man opposite him too, a
sullen, scowling bravo, was staring boldly at Natalie. Garth stiffened
himself to play a difficult part.
"I feel like a rare, exotic bird," whispered Natalie in his ear.
"You are," he returned grimly. "I think it would be better if you did
not speak my name," he added. "I will not address you by yours. We must
be prepared to parry questions."
"I will be careful," she said.
To do him justice, Nick Grylls, on a close examination of Natalie, had
the grace to feel a little ashamed of his rough outburst. He altered his
features to what he thought was a genteel expression; but Garth called
it a leer.
"Bully day for our trip," he said.
They all agreed in various tones; even Garth. He knew it would not help
Natalie for him to start by inviting trouble.
"You're the New York newspaper man," said Grylls to Garth.
"That's right," said Garth quietly.
"They tell me you're going to write up the country," said Grylls;
exhibiting that curious blend of suspicion, contempt and respect his
kind has for the fellow who writes. "I can tell you quite a bit about
the country myself," he added with a braggadocio air.
Garth thanked him.
"It's an onusual trip for a lady," continued Grylls, cunningly trying to
draw Natalie into the conversation; "but nothing out of the way at this
season. The Bishop travels comfortable enough; separate tent for the
women; and an ile stove like."
His move was not successful; Natalie continued looking charmingly blank.
Old Paul created a diversion by facing them with a confiding smile. The
pert Fedora with its curly brim was comically ill-suited to his seamed
old face, and mild blue eye. He pointed with his whip down a road on the
outskirts of the town.
"My place is down there," he said simply. "Just sold it last week; three
hundred acres at three hundred dollars an acre. They're layin' it out in
town lots."
"Good God, man!" cried Grylls. "You could buy me out and have a pile
over!" Every time he spoke, he glanced over his shoulder at Natalie.
Old Paul smiled up at him admiringly. "But this is only a sort of
accident," he said. "You made yours."
"What in he--Why are you driving the stage, then?" demanded Grylls.
"Well," said the old man slowly; "seems though I just got in the way of
it. Seems I just _had_ to keep hanging on to the ribbons, or lose holt
altogether."
"What are you going to do with all that money?" Grylls wanted to know.
"Well," said Paul with a quiet grin; "I bought me a new hat like the
swells wear; and a pair of Eastern shoes. They pinch me somepin' cruel,
too."
"Why don't you travel East, Mr. Smiley?" suggested Nell. She whom they
all addressed so cavalierly was particular to put a handle to each name.
"Travel! I had enough o' that, my girl," he said. "Forty-five years ago
I travelled East to Winnipeg and got me a wife. Brought her back over
the plains in a Red River cart. Eight hunder miles, and hostile redskins
all the way! What's travellin' nowadays!"
"Were you born out here?" asked Garth, shaping a story for the _Leader_
in his mind.
"At Howard House, west of here in the Rockies," said Paul. "My father
was Hudson's Bay trader there."
"Paul's an old-timer all right," said Grylls carelessly. He was
becoming bored with the trend the conversation was taking.
"One of the first eight who broke ground in Prince George," said the old
man proudly. "Yonder's the first two-story house in the country. I built
it. No!" he continued thoughtfully; "I'm keeping my house and ten acres;
and me and the old woman's calc'latin' to stop there and watch the march
o' progress by our door. She wouldn't give up her front step for all the
real-estate sharks in Prince George. But," he added with a chuckle, "I
shouldn't wonder if she was shocked some when them trolley-cars I hear
tell of goes kitin' by."
"I kin understand just how she feels," remarked old Nell to Natalie, with
her apologetic little smile. "What could take the place of a home with
real nice things in it? I got a house up near the Landing with a carpet
in every room. I just love to buy things for it. You see I never had what
you might call a regular house until just lately. This trip I bought a
pink-and-gold chiny washin' set; and a down comfort for the best room. I
never could tire of fixin' it up. We'll pass there to-morrow afternoon.
I'd just love to have you step in--"
Grylls laughed boisterously.
"Ah-h, shut up, Nell!" muttered the dark young man beside her.
"Thank you, I'd like to see it," said Natalie, with a flash of the blue
eyes.
They had now left the town behind; and were rolling, or rather bumping,
over the prairie. Here, it is not an empty plain, but a series of
natural, park-like meadows, broken by graceful clumps of poplar and
willow. On a prairie trail when the wheels begin to bite through the
sod, and sink into ruts, a new track is made beside the old--there is
plenty of room; and in turn another and another, spreading wide on each
side, crossing and interweaving like a tangled skein of black cotton
flung down in the green.
Natalie had never seen such luxuriant greenness; such diverse and
plentiful wild flowers. Nell pointed out the brilliant fire-weed, blending
from crimson to purple, the wild sunflower, the lovely painted-cup,
old-rose in colour; and there were other strange and showy plants she
could not name. Occasionally they passed a log cabin, gayly whitewashed,
and with its sod roof sprouting greenly. These dwellings, though crude,
fulfilled the great aim of architecture; they were a part of the landscape
itself.
When they stopped at one of these places for dinner, Garth watched
Natalie narrowly to see how she would receive her first taste of rough
fare. But far from quailing at the salt pork, beans and bitter tea, she
ate with as much gusto as if it had always been her portion. "She'll
do," he thought approvingly.
Afterward as they toiled up a long, sandy rise in the full heat of the
afternoon sun, Paul, the old dandy, had leisure while his horses walked
to devote to his passengers. He was pleased as a child at the interest
shown by Garth and Natalie in his anecdotes. Turning to them now, he
pointed to a high mound topped by a splendid pine standing by itself,
and said:
"Cannibal Hill. Used to be an Indian called Swift had his lodge there. A
fine figger of a man too; high-chested; beautiful-muscled. He was a good
Indian; and I want to say when a redskin is good, he's damn good--beg
pardon, Miss--he's good and no mistake, I should say. He has a high-minded
way of looking at things, which ought to make a white man blush; but it
don't; for them kind makes the softest tradin'. I been a trader myself.
"This here Swift had a wife and ten childer, that he thought a power of.
He hunted for 'em night and day; and he come to be known as the best
provider in the tribe. Well, come one winter he went crazy; yes, ma'am,
plumb looney; and he went for 'em with his hatchet. He killed and _et_
'em one at a time, beginning with the youngest; while the others waited
their turn. You see an old-fashioned Indian was the boss of his family;
and they didn't dast fight him back. Right up there on that hill, under
that very same tree; I seen the ashes of their bones myself. In the
Spring he come down to the settlement and give himself up; said he
didn't want to live no more. Shouldn't think he would."
Grylls made no secret of his impatience with the old man's yarns. He
interrupted him, careless of his feelings.
"Are you making the round trip with the Bishop?" he asked Garth.
Garth answered in the affirmative.
"I have a rabbit-skin robe at the Landing I'd be glad to lend the lady,"
he said leering sidewise at Natalie.
"Much obliged," said Garth agreeably; "but we really have all we can
use."
"What does _she_ say?" growled Nick.
"Thank you very much," said Natalie quickly; "but I could not think of
accepting it."
He had forced her to speak to him at last; but the words were hardly
to his satisfaction. He flung around in his seat with an ugly scowl.
Meanwhile old Paul was still pursuing his thoughts about redskins.
"Indians think when they go off their heads they're obliged to be
cannibals," he continued agreeably. "They can't separate the two idees
somehow. So when a redskin feels a screw beginning to work loose up
above, he settles on a nice, fat, tender subject. He says his head's
full of ice, and has to be melted. I mind one winter at Caribou Lake
forty years back, we were all nigh starving, and our bones was comin'
through our skins, like ten-p'ny nails in a paper bag. And one night
they comes snoopin' into the settlement an Indian woman as sleek and
soft and greasy as a fresh sausage--and lickin' her chops--um--um!
There was a man with her and he let it out. She had knifed two young
half-breed widows, as fair and beautiful a two girls as ever I see--and
she et 'em, yes, ma'am! And nobody teched her; they warn't no police
in them days. She lives to the Lake at this day!"
"Good Law! Mr. Smiley!" cried Nell with an uneasy glance at the grinning
half-breed on the tail-step.
"Keep cool, old gal!" growled Nick. "Nobody wouldn't pick you out for a
square meal!"
Nell's companion rewarded this sally with an enormous guffaw; and poor,
mortified Nell made believe to laugh too. Natalie's cheeks burned.
"I suppose you hunted buffalo in the old days," said Garth to old Paul.
"Sure, I was quite a hunter," he returned with a casual air. "It
weren't everybody as was considered a hunter, neither. You had to earn
your reppytation. We didn't do no drivin' over cliffs or wholesale
slaughterin'; it was clean huntin' with us, powder and ball. I mind they
used to make a big party, as high as two hundred men, whites, breeds,
and friendly redskins. Everything was conducted regular; camp-guards
and a council and a captain was elected; and all rules strict observed.
Every night we camped inside a barricade. One of the rules was, no tough
old bulls useless for meat should be killed under penalty of twenty-five
dollars. I was had up before the council for that; but I proved it was
self-defense."
"Tell us about it," suggested Garth.
The old man scratched his head, and shot a dubious glance at Natalie. "I
ain't sure as this is quite a proper story," he said. "You see, I was
having a wash, as it might happen, at the edge of a slough--a slough is
a little pond in the prairie, Miss, as you're a stranger--and my clothes
and my gun was lying beside me, and my horse was croppin' the grass at
the top of the rise. When I was as clean as slough water would make me,
which isn't much, 'cause I stirred up a power of mud, and soap was an
extravagance them days, I begun to dress myself. Well, I had my shirt
on, and was sittin' down to pull on my pants, when I heard my cayuse
start off on a dead run. I looked up quick-like and blest if there
wasn't old Bill Buffalo a-pawin' and a-bellerin' and a-shakin' of his
head, not thirty yards away! Soon as he see me look up he come chargin'
down on me with his big head close to the ground like a locomotive
cow-catcher. And me in that awkward state of dishabilly!"
"What did you do, Mr. Smiley?" cried Nell in suspense.
Paul shifted his quid, spat, and shoved his pearl Fedora a little
further over his ear. "G'lang there," he cried shaking the reins. "I
reached my gun before he reached me," he said; "and I gave him the
charge, bang in his little red eye. He reared up; and come down kerplunk
right on top o' me; only I rolled away just in time!"
* * * * *
The trail to the Landing is considered something of a road up North; and
the natives are apt to stare pityingly at the effeminate stranger who
complains of the holes. It is something of a road compared to what comes
after; but Natalie, hitherto accustomed to cushions and springs in her
drives, could not conceive of anything worse. As the afternoon waned,
what with the heat, the hard, narrow seat, and the incessant lurching
and bumping of the crazy stage, which threw her now backward till her
head threatened to snap off, and now forward on Nell's knees, the
blooming roses in Natalie's cheeks faded, and her smile grew wan.
Poor Garth, anxiously watching her, almost burst with suppressed
solicitousness.
But at last the journey came to its end; and at six o'clock the Royal
Mail with its bruised and famished passengers swung into the yard at
Forbie's, the halfway house, fifty miles from Prince George. Garth had
learned that the men slept in an outside bunkhouse, while the women were
received into the farmhouse itself. He hastened to interview Mrs. Forbie
in private, that the dreadful possibility of Natalie's being asked to
share a room with the other woman passenger might be avoided. It is
doubtful if Natalie would have taken any harm from poor old Nell; but
Garth was a young man falling in love; and so, ferociously virtuous in
judging Nell's kind. Natalie had a room to herself.