"I'll be intruding on a business talk. I may make him all the more
touchy." She was hesitating, weighing the hazards of each plan--to go or
to stay away.
"There's no private business to be talked. I'm simply going to tell him
that I have blown the ice and have the logs in the river and I want to
have his orders about how many splash dams I can blow up if I need to do
it for a head o' water to beat the Three C's drive to Skulltree. Really,
he needs to talk with somebody who is gentle," he went on, and she
responded to the touch on her arm and walked slowly with him up the
hill. "He sits there day by day and reads the tooth-for-tooth part of
the Old Testament, and it keeps hardening his heart. I've thought of a
plan. Suppose you get friendly with him! You can take some soothing
books up to him in your off hours and read aloud. Let's try to make a
different man of Eck Flagg, you and I."
So, over the ledges where her childish feet had stumbled, Lida Kennard,
trembling, anxious, yearning for her kin, went again to the door of the
big mansion on the hill.
Latisan's words had opened a vista of hope to her; she might be able,
after all, to render the service to which old Dick had exhorted her,
hiding her identity behind a woman's desire to cheer an invalid.
It was the same square, bleak house of her early memories, now dark
except for a dim glow through two dingy windows in the lower part; the
yee-yawed curtains were eloquent evidence of the housekeeping methods.
"He won't have any women around, as I told you." Latisan was not tactful
in his excuse for the slack aspect of the house.
"I'm afraid it isn't best for me to go in," she said, making a final
stand.
"If you go with me you're all right," declared the drive boss, with
pride of power where the Flagg interests were concerned. "It'll do him
good to be jumped out of himself--to see a young lady from the city."
Latisan did not knock; he walked in, escorting the girl.
In the middle of the sitting room, in a wheel chair that was draped
with a moosehide tanned with the hair on it, she beheld an old man with
a fleece of white mane and beard. A shaded oil lamp shed a circle of
radiance on a big book which lay on his knees. The girl noted that the
book was the Bible. Outside that circle of radiance the room was in
darkness and the old man heard footsteps without being able to see who
had entered; in the shadows was old Dick on his stool.
"That you, Latisan?" demanded the master.
"Yes, sir!" Ward was about to say more, introducing the girl, but Flagg
broke in, paying no attention to what his drive master might have on his
mind.
"Here's the stuff for real men in this book! You ought to take time to
read it. I'm sorry I didn't read it regular when I was going about on
two legs." He pounded his hand on the opened pages. "The parsons are now
preaching too much New Testament stuff. When my folks dragged me to the
meetinghouse in the pod-auger days we got Old Testament--red hot. I've
been hoping I remembered it right--I've been looking it up. Listen!"
"'If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or
the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is thine soul, entice thee
secretly, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which thou hast not
known, thou, nor thy fathers; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor
hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou
spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him;
thine hand shalt be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward
the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that
he die.'"
Again the old man beat his hand upon the book. "There are the orders for
you, Latisan!"
"I don't know as I just get you, sir!"
"You don't expect to find the Three C's mentioned by name in Holy Writ,
do you? But the case is covered. They're asking you and me to serve
other gods. They're asking us to go into their combine. If we do so it
means that the sawmills on this river will be closed and the homes
deserted. They're taking all the timber down to the paper mills. To hell
with their paper! The folks need lumber for houses. The Three C's shan't
control the market and boost prices so that folks can't buy. Latisan! I
tell you again, you've got your orders, backed by the Scripture. An eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! Families or corporations, it's all the
same! Why don't you say something?"
"I'm waiting to introduce a young lady, sir. This is Miss Jones who has
just come to town."
Flagg tipped the shade of the lamp and deflected the light upon the
couple. He bawled an ugly oath. "Clean shaved, again! Making a dude of
yourself! Sapgagging with a girl?"
Latisan stepped forward and broke in on the tirade. "I'll have to ask
you to trig that kind of talk, Mr. Flagg. Miss Jones has come here to
cheer you up."
"When I want any girl to come here and cheer me up I'll drop her a line
and give her thirty days' notice."
The caller who had been snubbed so bluntly turned on her heel. She
pleaded, faintly, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll leave you and Mr. Latisan to
talk over your business."
"I can't blame you for going," said Latisan. He followed her, and to her
profound amazement she discovered that a woodsman could be as
temperamental as a prima donna. "I'm going, too, Mr. Flagg," he called
over his shoulder. "I'm going for good and all where you're concerned.
I'm done with you. I gave you your fair warning. Send another man north
to the drive."
"Just one minute, there, Latisan!" called the master, harshly. "Unless
you're afraid to stay here that length of time or can't spare the minute
away from your wench!"
The drive master stopped at the door and spun around on his heel.
There had been but one flash of the light's rays on Lida--the old man
had immediately allowed the shade to drop; standing just beyond the
doorway in the hall, she was safely in the shadows.
"If you expect to hear me whinny like a sick horse you're mistaken,"
went on Flagg, with the staccato of ire. "Now I know what you're worth.
You have appraised yourself. A girl's grin has bought you. I don't know
what sort she is, nor care I. But unless she's a fool she can see what
you're worth, too. Go along, now!"
There was compunction in Latisan, and he realized it. But there was that
untamed spirit of old John, as well, and it made for rancor and
rebellion.
In that room at the moment old John's spirit was veritably present in
the grandson, reviving the ancient north-country duello of unconquered
wills with old Echford in the flesh--and a Latisan had never lowered the
crest before a Flagg.
"It's a cheap hired man you want!" Compromise was offered no opportunity
by young Latisan's manner and tone. "Hire one--of your picking! And a
devilish fine boss that kind will make for you!"
"I'll hire nobody," roared Flagg. "I'll ride to the head of the drive in
this chair. Even with both sides of me paralyzed I'll be worth more than
you are, you lallygagging, love-cracked loon! Get out of here!"
When the two were outside in the night the girl faced Latisan. "I insist
on going alone, sir. You have no right to leave a helpless man as you're
doing. I cannot believe that you mean what you said just now!"
"I'm through! I have let him curse me out all along and I took it whence
it came. But this time it's different."
"Please go back to him."
"I will not. I'm done!"
The grim thought came to her that she had ineluctably become a valuable
operative in the interests of the Vose-Mern agency. According to
appearances the work was finished. However, she promptly blazed into
indignation which rang true. "I'm only a stranger to that poor old man.
He did not understand. I had no right to rush in on him as I did."
"I had the right to invite you."
"I won't have it on my conscience that I have been a party to this break
between you two. If it were not so dreadful it would be silly, sir."
"I have the right to be silly about my own business, if you're bound to
call it silly, what I have done."
"Go back, I tell you!"
"I will not!"
"You shall not walk away with me."
"I invited you to come up here. I shall see you to the door of that
tavern. You may never speak to me again, but you won't be able to say
about me that I deserted you in the dark night."
"Will you come back here after you have escorted me to the tavern?"
"No! It's settled into a stand-off between Flagg and me."
"Don't you want to please me?"
"Yes, even to lying down here in the mud and letting you walk on me," he
declared, his fervor breaking from the repression he had been
maintaining with difficulty. "And it's because he has insulted somebody
that I feel like that toward--that's why I'm done with him. I'm not
putting it very smoothly. But it's in here!" He pounded his fist on his
breast.
"Mr. Latisan, this is folly. I'm only a waitress."
"I'm thanking God that you are and that you aren't too high above me, as
I was afraid you were when I met you in New York. You're down where I
can talk to you."
She started to walk away, but he leaped and seized both her arms. "This
is going mighty fast," he gasped. "I never talked to a girl in this way
in all my life. I'll probably never dare to talk to you if I wait for
daylight to-morrow--I'll be too scared of my thoughts overnight."
She did not try to twist herself free from his grasp; she was more
self-possessed than he was--he was trembling in all his frame.
"It's like dynamite," he stammered. "I reckon it was in me all the time!
The first flash of your eyes lighted the fuse! I've blown up." He pulled
her close to him, flung his arms about her, and kissed her. But
immediately he loosed her and stepped back. "I didn't intend to do that!
My feelings got away from me."
"And now may I go along?" she inquired, coldly, after he had remained
silent for a time.
"I'm sorry I have made you angry. I don't know how to go at a thing like
this one I'm tackling," he said contritely. "But I feel that talking out
straight and man fashion is the only way. Will you marry me?"
"Certainly not, sir!"
He did not attempt to stay her when she walked on. He trod humbly by her
side.
"I was afraid you wouldn't. But I couldn't keep back the asking any more
than I can push back that flood you can hear down in the gorge. It just
had to pour along, that asking!"
"Mr. Latisan, you astonish me. You desert your employer on account of a
mere whim----"
"Don't you call my standing up for you any whim, if you please!" The
change in his tone from humility to stern and masterful command caused
her to catch her breath. She was not accustomed to dominance by men.
"At any rate, sir, you have proposed marriage to a stranger, a mere
come-by-chance into this place, not knowing who or what I am. I have a
right to be astonished."
"Probably! But you aren't any more so than I was in New York when I
realized what had happened to me."
"So, now you can forget all about me and go back to your work on the
drive!"
"You have said I did not know much about you. It's plain you don't know
me! I have told Eck Flagg I am done. And I am! You don't understand. I'm
a Latisan and----" he faltered then; it sounded like boyish boasting and
he was a bit ashamed.
"Somehow that helpless old man has stirred all my sympathy. Why won't
you do as I ask?"
"Because a girl who throws a man down as you have hasn't any right to
ask him to do this or that."
They were near the tavern before either spoke again.
"I'm not saying that I'm not sorry for Eck Flagg," the drive master
stated. "I don't want you to leave me to-night with the idea that I'm a
quitter or a coward or a sneak about what's my duty. I'll be honest with
you. You think I'm a fool because I've fallen in love with you so
suddenly. A man who has tussled with drives and log jams for as many
years as I have needs to think quickly, make up his mind about what it's
right to do, and then stick to it. I'm not going to sacrifice myself for
Flagg--a man with the hard heart that's in him." He caught his breath
and plunged on: "You say to-night that you won't marry me. I'm going to
stay close by and see if you won't change your mind. A roaring fire is
in me right now!" His demeanor terrified her. The primitive man was
blazing. "I don't dare to take the chances on what would be in me if I
should go back to the drive and leave you here to be smirked at by every
cheap man who comes along. I have dreamed too much about you!" He was
wooing with the avatar of old John. "By the gods! you're my girl! I'm
going to have you! I'll stay on that job!"
"I shall leave this place to-morrow. It will be very--well, very unwise
for you to annoy me."
"I'm going to follow you."
"Mr. Latisan, I have listened to you; you shall listen to me!" She spoke
sharply. Now she displayed the equipoise of one who had learned much
from self-reliant contact with men. "I'll not argue with you about what
you call love. But there's something which love must have, and that's
self-respect. If your folly on account of me takes you away from your
honest duty you'll despise me when you come to yourself. You have been
honest with me. I'll be honest with you. I like you. I can see that
you're a big, true man--much different from most of the men I have met
before this. But I shall lose all my good opinion of you if you desert
your job. And, as I have said, you'll hate me if I allow you to do so.
Can we afford to take chances?"
While he pondered she made hurried mental account of stock in her own
case.
She was not admitting that she felt any especial consideration for this
man as a lover; she was protecting her grandfather and striving for her
own peace of mind as a payer of a debt of honor. He followed her when
she walked on toward the tavern.
"May I ask what you mean by taking chances? Chances on being something
more to each other than we are now?" he asked, wistfully.
"I think we have gone quite far enough for one evening, sir."
He pulled off his cap. "Before I go to sleep I shall say my little
prayer. I shall ask that you won't be thinking I have gone too far. I'm
sure it won't be a prayer to the God of the Old Testament, such as Eck
Flagg was reading about. I'll whisper up to Mother Mary. She understands
women. I don't."