with an authority that, handcuffed though he was, not even the most
audacious would have dared dispute. "An' what's more, tain't so easy ter
locate him. Like as not he's off, attendin' ter them vast interests of
his'n somewhar out among them hills!" He nodded, toward the
hoary-beaded mountains as if defying their granitic silence to gainsay
him.
"Sure he is!" corroborated the prospectors, in a chorus, covering up the
long-drawn sigh of relief that nearly betrayed Durant.
"Prospectors is here ter-day, and gone ter-morrer, like the snow, d'ye
see?" concluded Nick. "But he'll turn up in time all right, fer fair,
with a pokeful of dust in his corjeroys, and a train of mules loaded
down with nuggets fer his gal!"
"Sure! That's what! Betchersweetlife!" cried the boys, who lacked their
leader's skill in improvising lies, but knew a good one when they heard
it.
"Oh, thank you, thank you so much!" Evelyn had begun to feel real
uneasiness at the continued postponements in arriving at her journey's
end or obtaining definite intelligence of her father. "And when I join
him I shall tell him what a welcome you have given me. And I promise you
he shall back everybody's proposition. I promise every one of you a
substantial slice of our good fortune in the Rainbow Mine."
Comment on this generous pledge was headed off by Ikey's vigorous
ringing of the supper-bell, coupled with an announcement from Gumboot
Annie that for a dollar within the tent might be obtained a meal
calculated to turn the mother of the Delmonicos the colors of a lettuce
and tomato salad from professional jealousy, on which, at Evelyn's
invitation and with Barney's willing concurrence, the execution of
justice temporal again was stayed, while Nick and his followers, with
their custodian, mingled with the travelers at Gumboot Annie's board.
There the Bully's manacled efforts to devour bacon and flapjacks
particularly delighted the young ladies, who took turns in cutting up
his food for him, while he himself was moved almost to tears that his
last victim could not be present to share the joy their late
unpleasantness was procuring for himself as the survivor.
Durant followed them to the entrance of the tent where, unnoticed, he
lingered a few minutes, listening to the hum of merry voices, and
feasting his sad eyes upon his girl, then turned despairingly away.
V
EVELYN ENGAGES A COURIER
While, as he knew, his identity was suspected by Nick and Nick's gang,
yet, so long as these were at supper his disguise enabled Scarlett to
wander through the camp, as if seeking employment, and reconnoitre in
order to ascertain what were the most flagrant examples of law-breaking
industries with which, officially, he would have to deal. Meanwhile, his
thoughts kept straying toward the picture-girl with pleasure in the
thought of her fascinating proximity, not unmingled with criticism of
her large assumption of little dignities, softened, however, with pity
for the bitter disappointment in store for her when she should learn the
true state of her father's affairs.
As it would be manifestly impossible for her to continue under the
delusion that hers was the purse of Fortunatus to draw on, the
obviously wisest plan would be for Durant to disclose himself to her
without delay, confess the truth, and either arrange for her to remain
with him, sharing his rough lot, should she have the grit so to do, or
take up a collection to send her back to any friends who might be
willing to give her a home until, if ever, his luck should turn again.
For his own part, however, both as official and man, Sergeant Scarlett
was strongly of opinion that it would be an unholy act to allow a bevy
of girls to leave a district so sorely needing them, above all when
among their number was the girl of girls whom no young man can fail to
recognize the moment he sets eyes on her; or, as in his case, even on
her portrait. Accordingly, a thousand schemes passed through his head
for making the wilderness, in spite of straitened means and harsh
conditions, an acceptable habitation to the newcomers. The first step
was to take counsel with Evelyn's father, but when, after making his
duty rounds of inspection, he returned to the neighborhood of Gumboot
Annie's hostelry, Durant had disappeared, nor did inquiry reveal the
slightest trace of him.
Scarlett's next idea was formally to present himself to Miss Durant and
proffer his services in finding her party suitable accommodations till
her father could be reached. Just as he arrived at this decision the
travelers came from the tent. Approaching Evelyn, with a military salute
less effectively seconded than he could have desired by the battered
apology for a hat that he was wearing, he was about to accost her, when,
to his surprise, she waved him imperiously aside.
"Out of the way, my good man. I wish to speak with the officer."
At this, Barney, who was engaged in lining up his prisoners for the
march to headquarters, came forward, with a flattered grin. "Out av the
way, ye hulkin' vagabone!" he ordered his superior, with a rough shove
that filled Scarlett with wrath, and sent Nick and his men, who every
moment were becoming surer of the equivoque, into loud guffaws.
"I tell you, I never give indiscriminately to beggars," stated Miss
Durant, as the young man seemed inclined to persist. "Kate, love," she
beckoned a serious-looking young girl, "investigate his case."
Kate wrinkled up her conscientious eyebrows. "His face is very red," she
whispered Evelyn, "but somehow I don't think it's drink."
"Let him wait, then," ordained Evelyn, "and I'll see about him myself.
Meanwhile--oh, officer, I want your help! I'm in such a pickle for lack
of a man servant," she went on to confide in Barney. "The French courier
I brought out with me deserted the moment we set foot in Skagway, taking
my camera, automobile, and I don't know what besides. Of course, my
father will see to it that he's found and punished--and the things don't
matter, because, till my own are recovered, they can be replaced. But
the difficulty is to replace Alphonse. I never before saw so many idle
and poverty-stricken men in all my life; yet--it's the strangest
thing--no matter what inducements I offer, no one is willing to take
service with me."
"Myself, I don't think it much loss, miss," Evelyn's maid struck in.
"That Alphonse was too tight-laced to be of any good use. And, anyway,
for my part I don't think it respectable for a man to wear corsets any
more than for a woman to go without 'em."
"Oh, it's not Alphonse's usefulness I mourn for," admitted Miss Durant.
"It's the appearance of the thing; the _chic_. My father always likes me
to have the best of everything; and I owe it to his position no less
than to my own dignity to travel in the best style. Officer," again she
appealed to Barney, "can't you recommend me a courier?"
Barney looked his bewilderment. "Is it a currier for the horses av your
automeboiler ye do be wanting, miss?"
Perceiving in this breach his opportunity, Scarlett stepped boldly into
it. "May I apply for the position? I'm looking for work."
"Lookin' for throuble, more like," muttered Barney, with solicitude.
"Wid all thim lasses! Begorra, I know the sect."
Evelyn turned about and surveyed the speaker critically. "Ah, I'm glad
it's employment and not alms you want," she commended the busiest, most
hardworked official in the district. "But--I wonder--are you qualified?"
Into her pretty eyes there crept a look of doubt.
"I know something about horses," with truth the Mounted Policeman
assured her.
"But not about lasses," Barney anxiously tugged at his sleeve. "'Tis
them as leads ye the divvle av a ride, and is like as not to run away
wid ye."
"H'm!" Evelyn considered the matter. The shaggy picturesqueness of the
prospectors in colored flannel shirts, top boots and corduroys, with
hands ever on gun or pistol, their odd phrase and lurid expletive,
touched the silly streak of romanticism in her as had they been chorus
of an opera in which she found herself enacting the star role, but this
clean-skinned young man, with unadorned speech, in commonplace,
work-a-day clothes, at first failed to interest her.
"H'm! Well," she conceded finally, "I'm something of a judge of people.
Step into the light where we can take a good look at you."
As Scarlett obeyed, "There!" cried little Kate, triumphantly. "The nice,
modest way he changes color, I'm sure he doesn't drink!"
Evelyn also noticed, as who could fail to do, the ingenuous blush that
overspread the white crescent of the young giant's brow, and it
flattered her woman's love of power. "Well, girls," she demanded, in an
audible aside, "and what do you think of him?"
The verdict of the orphans was unanimous; they thought him fine,
Gertrude, who would have been frivolous and slangy had her institution
permitted it, pronouncing him "a peach." Sarah alone challenged him.
"He's a sassy piece," she informed Evelyn. "Look at him now, fit to
burst with laughter at us! I never heard of a decent man-servant that
couldn't keep his face straight."
"But if I'm not straight-faced and strait-laced like Alphonse," urged
Scarlett, "at least ye can count on me never to take French leave of
ye."
Sarah shook her head ominously. "He's too young, miss," she warned
Evelyn. "Far too young."
"But I'm growing older every day," pleaded the postulant, "and up here
the days are so long, one grows old twice as fast."
"He has too much command of language for a man-servant, miss," insisted
Sarah. "That kind is apt to put on airs above their station. And--look
at him now!--there's something altogether too masterful about the way he
walks."
"Ah, that comes from soldiering," the young man explained. "Me legs are
always under arms, as it were."
Evelyn laughed with a distinct prepossession. "What is your name?" she
inquired.
"Scarlett."
"Scarlett what?"
"It's what Scarlett."
"Eh? What do you sign yourself--that is, can you write?"
"Oh, I manage to make me mark with my fist on any human document that
gets in my way. I sign myself J. Scarlett."
"Oh! And what does J stand for?"
"Gerald."
"Gerald! How do you spell it?"
"The usual way. G-e-r-a-l-d."
"Then, why do you sign it J?"
"Oh, that's just a mistake other people make in the pronunciation," the
owner of the name elucidated, to his own if not to his hearer's
satisfaction. "It once nearly cost me a lawsuit to establish it."
Sarah groaned: "He talks for all the world like an Irishman."
"Murther will out," Barney proclaimed, with pride.
Evelyn turned on the owner of Dunshinnanon. "Are you Irish?"
"It's the best excuse my parents could make for me," admitted Scarlett.
"I am more than half inclined to take him on trial," Evelyn stated. "But
first," she again consulted Barney, "officer, can you give the young man
a character?"
"A character? Faith, but that's phwat he does be needing some ginerously
minded person to bestow on him, for niver a wan av his own has he to
show at all, at all!" cried Barney, mindful of his chief's earlier
injunctions to depict him in unflattered lights. "Glory be! If I was to
begin to tell yez phwat I don't know about the lad he'd be afther
breaking my skull for me, an' not for the first toime."
"Nor the last, either, you idiot!" growled Scarlett.
"That's rather vague," commented Evelyn. "Tell me, is he honest?"
"Gosh! th' Irish is no thieves," Barney answered handsomely for his
race, "though now and thin maybe wan might snap at something in your
hand. It takes a dhirty Hollander to do the stealin'!"
"Oh! And--is he sober?"
"Sober! A pure-blooded Celt like himself!" Wishing still to carry out
Scarlett's first orders, Barney hotly repudiated the charge of damaging
sobriety on his behalf, but warned by a surreptitious kick that he was
exceeding instructions, he softened it by asking, generally: "Wid a
felly like himself, that dhrunk or sober is aqually an omadhaun, phwat
the divvle is the differ?" And Scarlett also pleaded his own cause by
admitting that he was frequently quite sober, though, thanks be! never
to an intemperate degree.
Sarah groaned portentously, but the missionary spirit was awakening in
Evelyn. "I can put up with a good deal," she asserted, "if I feel I am
giving employment where it is really needed. But I must first know
where I stand. Is this young person reliable, to be depended on in an
emergency?"
"You betcherlife on that!" yelled the prospectors, in delighted chorus.
As outlaws, the mounted policeman was their natural enemy, but for the
time he had downed them, as in the long run, they, by instinct, realized
he always would down them, and they respected him.
"You stake yer bottom plunk on it, d'ye see? He's the only man ever got
me skinned forty ways from the Jack," in a generous climax conceded
Bully Nick.
Evelyn's pretty face was clouded with perplexity. Categorically there
was no specific charge against the applicant; moreover, the longer she
looked at him the more was she impressed with the promise of strength in
his splendid proportions, the resolute chin, clear, friendly eyes, even
though the corners of a mobile mouth did curl as if with perpetual
laughter in an outlook on life too original to be seemly in a wearer of
livery--yet, evidently, something was being withheld from her. Urged,
however, by all the little orphans, who by this time were in love with
Scarlett, she remarked: "Yes, we must remember that we came up here not
only for our own pleasure, but also to do good. I am tempted to take
the young man on a month's trial, and at least endeavor to reform him.
That is, if---- Officer," she again consulted Barney, "is he really the
best protector you can find for us?"
Pushing his hat back from a brow heated by such unwonted drafts upon its
thinking powers, Barney scratched his head while regarding his superior
with disparagement. Finally, "well, yis, he is," he admitted, as if it
were the last damnatory word to be spoken of the man.
Having ascertained that something over a dollar a day and his keep was
as much as he was used to in the way of wage, Miss Durant instructed her
new courier in his duties--"to look after our trunks, bicycles, banjos,
pianola, mandolins----"
"And the pets, dear," put in Ruth, who was rather tired of trying to
keep the peace between an Angora cat and a canary, a parrot that looked
as if it had a wicked past and a bull pup who wished to include the
parrot, past and all, in his present rampageous scheme of life.
"Oh, of course the menagerie! Then you must go ahead to engage the best
suites for us at the hotels, and----"
"And follow ye to pick up the articles ye leave behind," Scarlett
nodded, understandingly. "But till we get fairly started, I'll just
accompany ye."
"Very well," assented Evelyn. "Sarah, I hope you won't mind having the
young man eat with you while we are traveling?"
"I suppose it can't be helped, miss," gloomily replied the maid. "I only
hope the young man will have the grace to improve the opportunity."
"Oh, I'll improve it fast enough," promised Scarlett, with a twinkling
eye on Sarah, "so long as ye don't expect me to embrace it."
Evelyn cut short the maid's angry reproof. "Now, Gerald, you must keep
your place. Conduct us to the nearest large city. We must telegraph my
father to join us there. Meanwhile, we want to do a lot of shopping. We
want, oh, ever so many things! Girls, which of you has my list?"
"I put down prizes for our bridge parties," cried Effie, her eyes
snapping at the thought of the unhallowed joys in store for her.
"And materials for making fudge," whispered Ethel, who had thirty-two
sweet teeth.
"Yes," assented Evelyn. "And we must buy presents: neckties and things
for the poor dear miners who have been so kind to us. Also cotillion
favors. As soon as we are settled I mean to give a ball."
"But, miss, how about money?" Sarah reminded her. "We have only
fifty-odd dollars left."
"Oh, we can have things charged!" cried Evelyn, airily. "My father's
name will be letter of credit to any amount."
Scarlett looked about with a growing uneasiness. The day was fast
subsiding into the long twilight that precedes the short northern summer
night. Barney had departed with his captives on the long march that was
the most effective object-lesson conceivable in what could be
accomplished in policing a district by but two men, with the might of a
Government behind; and here was he, practically alone, save for the
minister, to guard these women, since, as he shrewdly guessed, in an
emergency the courage of the other passengers traveling by the coach
would prove of negligible quality. The horses had been put into harness
some time before, yet the driver kept delaying their departure on the
most trivial pretexts. On this Gumboot Annie, when appealed to, threw a
lurid local color. "Guess Logan is timin' things fer the hold-up."
"The hold-up!" in alarm, exclaimed the passengers, who enjoyed these
things better on billboards forthsetting Bowery melodrama. "You don't
mean to say they really have hold-ups in these parts?"
Gumboot Annie spat deliberately before replying, "Why, that's our
specialty."
"But the driver--does not the driver defend his passengers?"
"The driver! Now wouldn't thet jostle yer!" demanded Gumboot Annie of
the mountains. "Logan hes ter stand in with the gang ter save his own
skin. And, mind you folks don't make no fuss. Pass in yer checks an' no
jawin', and the boys won't hurt yer none. But if yer squeal--well, it's
none of my funeral."
Great consternation prevailed among the passengers who had booked to
Camp Perdu, the stage's next destination, and elaborate were the
preparations they made to conceal their valuables. The bills and
gold-dust Maclane had collected for his hospital he skilfully packed
into his moccasin, while, to the general amusement, Sarah bestowed
Evelyn's ready money in the fauna and flora of her own bonnet.
"It's my belief the woman only said that to frighten us," decided Evelyn
as, with a flourish of his horn, the driver shouted, "All aboard!" And
as the stage rumbled peacefully along she added: "In any case, our
party is safe. Our courier will protect us!" In no respect, however,
were her predictions justified. Hardly was Lost Shoe Creek left behind
when from the bushes by the wayside sprang a band of men, with hats
drawn over their faces, pistols in hand, bidding the driver halt.
It was the most systematic proceeding in the world, reducing the bandits
to the level of petty tradesmen, and their victims to that of unwilling
contributors to a recognized if oppressive impost. Not one of the former
offered to spare the fair sex on condition its fairest representative
should tread with him the stately measure of a minuet; not one of the
latter invoked the memory of the former's spotless childhood hallowed by
a mother's caresses beneath an old oaken bucket or spreading chestnut
tree. Instead, Logan wound the reins about the whip as this stood in its
socket, and held up his hands, though without ceasing to chew the straw
in his mouth, while the passengers under invitation apparently no more
coercive than that of the average trolley car conductor to step lively
or move up, dismounted and stood with uplifted arms while methodically
relieved of purses, watches and the like. Terror tied the women's
tongues, while the men, knowing the futility of remonstrance, were
silent. Only Scarlett, while submitting with the rest, ventured on a
lively sally or so that called down on him a few curses or served to
provoke a laugh that later helped him in identifying the malefactors.
But not a word of importance was uttered on either side till the leader
of the gang, surveying the pile of loot, muttered, discontentedly:
"Well, this is a blamed mean crowd! Go over 'em again!"
It was then Scarlett took a quick decision. Little as passivity suited
his fighting manhood; much as, in his own phrase, it pained him to
Evelyn's appealing glances to turn a deaf ear, he knew that to offer the
slightest resistance would be to forfeit his own life and leave the
womenkind to a fate one dared not think of calmly. Nevertheless, when at
the second overhauling he saw her jeweled belt and studs torn rudely
from her he could not forbear a movement of impatience that drew to
himself the serious attention of the robbers.
"Say, young feller"--one pressed the cold muzzle of a pistol to his
forehead--"air you in an all-fired hurry ter see yer affairs wound up?"
"Oh, as to that," he answered, "ye can wind up me affairs and welcome if
ye'll take the time. They're just the Waterbury watch inside me
pocket."
The ruffian laughed, and told him he could keep his worthless timepiece
for his wit, but Evelyn shuddered with a disgust that gave her voice.
"The pitiful coward! When I took it for granted you would risk your life
for me!"
"Faith, but I'm not dying to be corpse at me own wake," jeered Scarlett.
"For a lady I might risk my life, but not for the dust the reverend
gentleman is treading under foot, nor for the greenbacks sprouting from
yonder good woman's botanical headpiece!"
Shrieks from the women, groans and reproaches from the men, denounced
this treachery, as the bonnet of the protesting Sarah yielded up its
riches and the minister in heartbroken silence suffered himself,
perforce, to be despoiled, while old Blenksoe, taken off his guard, in
his natural tones cried, approvingly, "Ah, thet's somethin' like!"
As they hurriedly packed their loot, "Rustle, boys," in undertones,
warned the leader, "else we shall have that blasted M. P. of a Scarlett
on our backs!" His caution came none too soon. At Scarlett's
instigation, Barney had contrived to get word to Perdu, and just as the
robbers had cleared into the jungle with their booty an armed delegation
of citizens appeared upon the scene. As the victims were left penniless,
Dave Hastie, proprietor of the Grand Hotel, offered them gratuitous
hospitality for the approaching night, a kindness that was accepted only
too gladly.
"But before we start," cried Evelyn, amid general acclamation, "I wish
to denounce a coward, a poltroon, a traitor! A contemptible being whose
betrayal of those who trusted him should not go unscathed. Creature,"
she turned on her smiling courier, "have you no sense of shame?"
"Sure, but I have," he answered. "Never a day passes that I don't blush
for human nature in the lump!"
Evelyn sighed, and again addressed the delegation of Perdu's Law and
Order League, who, having missed the robbers, were fairly spoiling with
eagerness to kill the next best man. "He never so much as lifted a
finger to defend us," she explained.
"Oh, but I did! All ten of them," he defended himself, in injured tones.
"It's only what one might expect," Sarah harangued the throng, "taking
on a scallywag without character or references. Practically robbing miss
here of every penny of ready money she possesses, and damaging this
bunnet that I got at a reduction off of a lady friend as has set up a
swell millinery establishment in Sixth Avenue."
"He delivered us to our enemies!" There were tears in Maclane's voice.
"He stripped the sick, the suffering; turned into channels of vice the
contributions for my hospital."
All agreed that hanging was too good for the culprit, and some were in
favor of lynching. One consideration alone deterred them from extreme
measures, even while a rope was being hunted for among the skunk
willows, sage and wild lupin by the road: namely, the unpopularity of
such punitive proceedings with the Mounted Policeman newly appointed to
the district.