CHAPTER XII

THE SELLING OF GASPARD'S TRAIL

The surroundings were depressing when, one evening, Steel and I rode home for the last time to Gaspard's Trail. The still, clear weather, with white frost in the mornings and mellow sunshine all day long, which follows the harvest, had gone, and the prairie lay bleak and gray under a threatening sky waiting for the snow. Crescents and wedges of wild fowl streaked the lowering heavens overhead as they fled southward in endless processions before the frost. The air throbbed with the beat of their pinions which, at that season, emphasizes the human shrinking from the winter, while the cold wind that shook the gra.s.ses sighed most mournfully.

There was nothing cheering in the prospect for a man who badly needed encouragement, and I smiled sardonically when Steel, who pushed his horse alongside me, said: "There's a good deal in the weather, and this mean kind has just melted the grit right out of me. I'll be mighty thankful to get in out of it, and curl up where it's warm and snug beside the stove. Sally will have all fixed up good and cheerful, and the west room's a cozy place to come into out of the cold."

"You must make the most of it to-night, then, for we'll be camping on straw or bare earth to-morrow," I said. "Confound you, Steel! Isn't it a little unnecessary to remind me of all that I have lost?"

"I didn't mean it that way," said the other, with some confusion. "I felt I had to say something cheerful to rouse you up, and that was the best I could make of it. Anyway, we'll both feel better after supper, and I'm hoping we'll yet see the man who turned you out in a tight place."

"You have certainly succeeded," I answered dryly. "When a man is forced to stand by and watch a rascal cheat him out of the result of years of labor, you can't blame him for being a trifle short in temper, and, if it were not for the last expectation you mention, I'd turn my back to-morrow on this poverty-stricken country. As it is----"

"We'll stop right here until our turn comes some day. Then there'll be big trouble for somebody," said Steel. "But you've got to lie low, Ormesby, and give him no chances. That man takes everyone he gets, and, if one might say it, you're just a little hot in the head."

"One's friends can say a good deal, and generally do," I answered testily. "How long have you set up as a model of discretion, Steel?

Still, though there is rather more sense than usual in your advice, doesn't it strike you as a little superfluous, considering that Lane has left us no other possible course?"

Steel said nothing further, and I was in no mood for conversation.

Gaspard's Trail was to be sold on the morrow, and Lane had carefully chosen his time. The commercial depression was keener than ever, and there is seldom any speculation in Western lands at that time of the year. It was evidently his purpose to buy in my possessions.

A cheerful red glow beat out through the windows of my dwelling when we topped the last rise, but the sight of it rather increased my moodiness, and it was in silence, and slowly, we rode up to the door of Gaspard's Trail. Sally Steel met us there, and her eyelids were slightly red; but there was a vindictive ring in her voice as she said: "Supper's ready, and I'm mighty glad you've come. This place seems lonesome. Besides, I'm 'most played out with talking, and I've done my best to-day. Those auctioneering fellows have fixed up everything, but it isn't my fault if they don't know how mean they are. They finished with the house in a hurry, and one of them said: 'I can't stand any more of that she-devil.'"

"He did! Where are they now?" asked Steel, dropping his horse's bridle and staring about him angrily; but, after a glance at Sally, who answered my unspoken question with a nod, I seized him by the shoulder.

"Steady! Who is hot-headed now?" I said.

Steel strove to shake off my grasp until his sister, who laughed a little, turned towards him. "I just took it for a compliment, and there's no use in your interfering," she said. "I guess neither of them feels proud of himself to-night, and a cheerful row with somebody would spoil all the good I've done. They're camping yonder in the stable, but you'll tie up the horses in the empty barn."

Sally Steel was a stanch partisan, and, knowing what I did of her command of language, I felt almost sorry for the men who had been exposed to it a whole day in what was, after all, only the execution of their duty. Before Steel returned, one of them came out of the stable and approached me, but, catching sight of Sally, stopped abruptly, and then, as though mustering his courage, came on again.

"I guess you're Mr. Ormesby, and I'm auctioneer's a.s.sistant," he said.

"One could understand that you were a bit sore, but I can't see that it's my fault, anyway; and from what we heard, you don't usually turn strangers into the stable."

The man spoke civilly enough, and I did not approve of his location; but the rising color in Sally's face would have convinced anybody who knew her that non-interference was the wisest policy.

"It is about the first time we have done so, but this lady manages my house, and, if you don't like your quarters, you must talk to her," I said.

The man cast such a glance of genuine pity upon me that it stirred me to faint amus.e.m.e.nt, rather than resentment, while the snap, as we called it on the prairie, which crept into Sally's eyes usually presaged an explosion.

"If that's so, I guess I prefer to stop just where I am," he said.

We ate our supper almost in silence, and little was spoken afterwards.

Sally did her best to rouse us, but even her conversation had lost its usual bite and sparkle, and presently she abandoned the attempt. I lounged in a hide chair beside the stove, and each object my eyes rested on stirred up memories that were painful now. The cl.u.s.ter of splendid wheat ears above the window had been the first sheared from a bounteous harvest which had raised great hopes. I had made the table with my own fingers, and brought out the chairs, with the crockery on the varnished shelf, from Winnipeg, one winter, when the preceding season's operations had warranted such reckless expenditure. The dusty elevator warrant pinned to the wall recalled the famous yield of grain which--because cattle had previously been our mainstay--had promised a new way to prosperity, and now, as I glanced at it, led me back through a sequence of failure to the brink of poverty. Also, bare and plain as it was, that room appeared palatial in comparison with the elongated sod hovel which must henceforward shelter us at Crane Valley.

The memories grew too bitter, and at last I went out into the darkness of a starless night, to find little solace there. I had planned and helped to build the barns and stables which loomed about me--denied myself of even necessities that the work might be better done; and now, when, after years of effort and sordid economy, any prairie settler might be proud of them, all must pa.s.s into a stranger's hands, for very much less than their value. Tempted by a dazzling possibility, I had staked too heavily and had lost, and there was little courage left in me to recommence again at the beginning, when the hope which had hitherto nerved me was taken away. Steel and his sister had retired before I returned to the dwelling, and I was not sorry.

The next day broke gloomily, with a threat of coming storm, but, as it drew on, all the male inhabitants of that district foregathered at Gaspard's Trail. They came in light wagons and buggies and on horseback, and I was touched by their sympathy. They did not all express it neatly.

Indeed, the very silence of some was most eloquent; but there was no mistaking the significance of the deep murmur that went up when Lane and two men drove up in a light wagon. The former was dressed in city fashion in a great fur-trimmed coat, and his laugh grated on me, as he made some comment to the auctioneer beside him. Then the wagon was pulled up beside the rank of vehicles, and the spectators ceased their talking as, dismounting, he stood, jaunty, genial, and _debonnaire_, face to face with the a.s.sembly.

Even now the whole scene rises up before me--the threatening low-hung heavens, the desolate sweep of prairie, the confused jumble of buildings, the rows of wagons, and the intent, bronzed faces of the men in well-worn jean. All were unusually somber, but, while a number expressed only aversion, something which might have been fear, mingled with hatred, stamped those of the rest. Every eye was fixed on the little portly man in the fur coat who stood beside the wagon looking about him with much apparent good-humor. Lane was not timid, or he would never have ventured there at all; but his smile faded as he met that concentrated gaze. Those who stared at him were for the most part determined men, and even with the power of the law behind him, and two troopers in the background, some slight embarra.s.sment was not inexcusable.

"Good-morning to you, boys. Glad to see so many of you, and I hope you'll pick up bargains to-day," he said; and then twisted one end of his mustache with a nervous movement; when again a growl went up. It was neither loud nor wholly articulate, though a few vivid epithets broke through it, and the rest was clearly not a blessing. Several of the nearest men turned their backs on the speaker with as much parade as possible.

"Don't seem quite pleased at something," he said to me. "Well, it don't greatly matter whether they're pleased or not. May as well get on to business. You've had your papers, and didn't find anything to kick against, Ormesby?"

"It is hardly worth while to ask, considering your experience in such affairs. The sooner you begin and finish, the better I'll be pleased," I said.

The auctioneer's table had been set up in the open with the ticketed implements arranged behind it and the stock and horses in the wire-fenced corral close beside. He was of good repute in his business, and I felt a.s.sured of fair play from him, at least, though I could see Lane's purpose in bringing him out from Winnipeg. The latter was too clever to spoil a well-laid scheme by any superfluous petty trickery, and with that man to conduct it n.o.body could question the legitimacy of the sale. There was an expectant silence when he stood up behind his table.

"What is one man's gain is another man's loss, and I feel quite certain, from what I know of the prairie, that none of you would try to buy a neighbor's things way under their cost," he commenced. "It's mighty hard to make a fortune in times like these, you know, but anybody with sound judgment, and the money handy, has his opportunity right now. You're going to grow wheat and raise beef enough down here to feed the world some day. It's a great country, and the best bit in it you'll find scheduled with its rights and acreage as the first lot I have to offer you--the Gaspard's Trail holding with the buildings thereon. The soil, as you all know, will grow most anything you want, if you scratch it, and the climate----"

"Needs a const.i.tution of cast iron to withstand it," interjected a young and sickly Englishman, who had benefited less than he expected from a sojourn on the prairie. His comment was followed by a query from another disappointed individual: "Say, what about the gophers?"

"I'm not selling you any climate," was the ready answer. "Even the gopher has its uses, for without some small disadvantages the fame of your prosperity would bring out all Europe here. Now, gentlemen, I'm offering you one of the finest homesteads on the prairie. Soil of unequaled fertility, the best gra.s.s between Winnipeg and Calgary, with the practical certainty of a railroad bringing the stock cars to its door, and the building of mills and elevators within a mile from this corral."

Here Lane, standing close to the table, whispered something--un.o.bserved, he doubtless thought--to the auctioneer, whose genial face contracted into a frown. Lane had, perhaps, forgotten the latter was not one of the impecunious smaller fry who, it was suggested, occasionally accepted more than hints from him.

"The holder of the mortgage evidently considers that the railroad will not be built, and it is very good of him to say so--in the circ.u.mstances; but we all know what a disinterested person he is,"

continued the auctioneer; and the honest salesman had, at least, secured the crowd's goodwill. A roar of derisive laughter and appreciation of the quick-witted manner in which he had punished unjustified interference followed the sally. "That, after all, is one person's opinion only; and I heard from Ottawa that the road would be built. I want your best bids for the land and buildings, with the stock cars thrown in. You'll never get a better chance; but not all at once, gentlemen."

During the brief interval which followed I was conscious of quivering a little under the suspense. The property, if realized at normal value, should produce sufficient to discharge my liabilities several times over; but I dreaded greatly that, under existing conditions, a balance of debt would be left sufficient to give Lane a hold on me when all was sold. The auctioneer's last request was superfluous, for at first n.o.body appeared to have any intention of bidding at all, and there was an impressive hush while two men from the cities, who stood apart among the few strangers, whispered together. Meanwhile I edged close in to the table so that I might watch every move of my adversary.

"Lane wasn't wise when he tried to play that man the way he did," said Steel, who stood beside me, but I scarcely heeded him, for Carson Haldane, who must have reached Bonaventure very recently, nodded to me as he took his seat in a chair Thorn brought him.

Then one of the strangers named a ridiculously small sum, which Steel, amid a burst of laughter from all those who knew the state of his finances, immediately doubled, whereupon the bidder advanced his offer by a hundred dollars.

"Another five hundred on to that!" cried Steel; and when my foreman, Thorn, followed his cue with a shout of, "I'll go three hundred better,"

the merriment grew boisterous. The spectators were strung up and uncertain in their mood. Very little, I could see, would rouse them to fierce anger, and, perhaps, for that reason any opening for mirth came as a relief to them. I had now drawn up close behind the table which formed the common center for every man's attention, and, scanning the faces about it, saw Lane's darken when the stranger called out excitedly, "I'll raise him two hundred and fifty."

Lane rewarded Thorn with a vicious glance, and growled under his breath.

Next he whispered something to the auctioneer, who disregarded it, while a few minutes later the bidder, holding his hand up for attention, said:

"I withdraw my last offer. I came here to do solid business and not fool away my time competing with irresponsible parties who couldn't put up enough money to buy the chicken-house. Is this a square sale, Mr.

Auctioneer, or is anybody without the means to purchase to be allowed to force up genuine buyers for the benefit of the vendor?"

"That's Lane's dummy, and I'm going to do some talking now," said Steel.

I was inclined to fancy that the usurer, perhaps believing there was no such thing as commercial honesty, had badly mistaken his man, or that the auctioneer, guided by his own quick wits, saw through his scheme, for he smote upon the table for attention.

"This is a square sale, so square that I can see by the vendor's looks he would sooner realize half-value than countenance anything irregular.

I took it for granted that these gentlemen had the means to purchase, as I did in your own case. No doubt you can all prove your financial ability."

"One of them is still in debt," added the bidder.