Also, a month or two later, Thorn and Steel sought speech with me, the former looking almost uncomfortable when his companion said: "I've been talking with Haldane about taking up my old place, and don't see how to raise the money, or feel very keen over it. We never did much good there since my father went under. The fact is, we two pull well together, and you have the longest head. Won't you run both places and make me a kind of foreman with a partner's interest?"

The suggestion suited me in many ways, but bearing in mind what might be possible, I saw a difficulty. "I dare say we might make a workable arrangement, and I couldn't find a better partner; but haven't you Sally's interests to consider?" I said.

Steel smiled in an oracular fashion. "That's Tom's business," he said, with a gesture, which, though I think it was involuntary, suggested that he felt relieved of a load. "Sally is a daisy, and I've done my best for her; but though there's n.o.body got more good points, I don't mind allowing she was a blame big handful now and then. Of course, we are all friends here!"

"We won't be if you start in apologizing for Sally," broke in the stalwart Thorn; and as I glanced at his reddened face, a light dawned on me.

"That's all right!" said the smiling brother. "There's no use in wasting words on him. He has had fair warning, and I'm not to blame."

It struck me that the best thing I could do was to shake hands with the wrathful foreman, and I did it very heartily.

"He will think differently some day, and you will have a good wife, Tom," I said. "We'll miss you both badly at Crane Valley, but must try to give you a good start off when you take up your preempted land."

It must be recorded that henceforward Sally was a model of virtue, so much so that I marveled, while at times her brother appeared to find it hard to conceal his astonishment. She was more subdued in manner and gentle in speech, while I could now understand the soft light which filled her eyes when they rested upon my foreman. The former spirit, however, still lurked within her, for returning to the house one evening when spring had come around again, I saw Cotton, who had once been a favorite of hers, leap out of the door with a brush whirling through the air close behind him.

"What is the meaning of this, Cotton?" I asked sharply, and the corporal, who looked slightly sheepish, glanced over his shoulder as though expecting another missile.

"The truth is that I don't quite know," he said. "Perhaps Miss Steel is suffering from a bad toothache or something of the kind to-day."

"That does not satisfy me," I said, as severely as I could, hoping he would not discover it was mischief which prompted me. "I presume my housekeeper did not eject you without some reason?"

"Why don't you ask her, then?" said Cotton awkwardly. "Still, I suppose an explanation is due to you if you insist on it. I went in to talk to Sally while I waited for you, and said something--perfectly innocent, I a.s.sure you, about---- Well--confound it--if I did say I'd been heartbroken ever since I saw her last, was that any reason why she should hurl a brush at me? She used to appreciate that kind of foolery."

"Circ.u.mstances alter cases," I said dryly. "Don't you know that Sally will leave here as Mrs. Thorn in a few weeks or so?"

"On my word of honor, I didn't," and Cotton laughed boyishly. "Go in and make my peace with her, if you can. I am positively frightened to. Say I'm deeply contrite and--confoundedly hungry."

Supper was just ready, but there were only four plates on the table, and when I ventured to mention that Cotton waited repentant and famishing without, Sally regarded me stonily. "He can just stay there and starve,"

she said.

Even Thorn, who, I think, knew Sally's weak points and how they were counterbalanced by the warm-heartedness which would have covered much worse sins, laughed; but the lady remained implacable, and, as a result of it, Cotton hungry without, until--when the meal was almost finished--Dixon, who was accompanied by Sergeant Mackay, astonished us by alighting at the door. He brought startling news.

The first carloads of rails and ties for the new road were ready for dispatching, and it would pa.s.s close by my possessions; while, after we had recovered from our excitement, he said: "I have been searching for a Corporal Cotton, and heard he might be here. Do you know where he is?"

I looked at Sally, who answered for me frigidly: "You might find him trying to keep warm in the stable."

Dixon appeared astonished, and Mackay's eyes twinkled, while after some consideration the autocrat at the head of the table said: "If it's important business, Charlie may tell him that he may come in."

Cotton seemed glad to obey the summons, and knowing that he had ridden a long way since his last meal, I signaled Dixon to wait, when Sally, relenting, set a double portion before him. It was, therefore, some time later when the lawyer, glancing in his direction, said: "You are Charles Singlehurst Cotton, born at Halton Edge in the county of Warwick, England?"

The effect was electrical. Cotton thrust back his plate and straightened himself, staring fixedly at the speaker with wrath in his gaze. "I am Corporal C. Cotton of the Northwest Police, and whether I was born in England or Canada concerns only myself."

Dixon smiled indulgently, and Mackay, looking towards me, nodded his head with a complacent air of one who has witnessed the fulfilment of his prophecy.

"If I had any doubts before, after inspecting a photograph of you, I have none at present," the former said. "Mr. Ormesby forgot to mention that I am a lawyer by profession, and Messrs. James, Tillotson & James, of London, whose name you doubtless know, requested me through a correspondent to search for you. Having business with Mr. Haldane, I came in person. Have you any objection to according me a private interview?"

Cotton looked at me interrogatively, and I nodded. "You can safely trust even family secrets to Mr. Dixon. He is, or will be, one of the foremost lawyers in the Dominion."

Dixon made me a little semi-ironical bow, and when he and Cotton pa.s.sed out together into my own particular sanctum, a lean-to shed, Mackay beamed upon me. "Man, did I not tell ye?" he said.

It was some time before Cotton came back, looking grave and yet elated, and turning towards us, said: "Mr. Dixon has brought me unexpected news, both good and bad. It is necessary that I should accompany him to Winnipeg. Sergeant, you have the power to grant me a week's leave of absence?"

Mackay pursed his lips up, and, with overdone gravity, shook his head.

"I'm fearing we cannot spare ye with the new mounts to train."

Dixon chuckled softly. "I'm afraid Charles Singlehurst Cotton will break no more police horses for you. He has a good many of another kind of his own," he said. "He has also influential relatives who require his presence in England shortly, and have arranged things so that your chief authorities will probably release him before his term of service is completed. The signature to this note should remove any scruples you may have about granting him leave."

Mackay drew himself up, and returned the letter with the air of one acknowledging a commander's orders, then let his hand drop heavily on Cotton's shoulder. His tone was slightly sardonic, but there was a very kindly look in his eyes as he said: "Ye'll no' be above accepting the congratulations of the hard old sergeant who licked ye into shape. It was no' that easy, and maybe it galled ye some; but ye have learned a few useful things while ye rode with the Northwest troopers ye never would have done in England. We took ye, a raw liddie, some bit overproud of himself, and now I'm thinking we'll miss ye when we send ye back the makings of a man. Away ye go with Mr. Dixon so long as it's necessary."

It struck me as a graceful thought, for Cotton stood straight, as on parade, with the salute to a superior, as he said: "I'll report for duty in seven days, sir," then laid his brown hand in Mackay's wrinkled palm.

"Every word's just as true as gospel, and I'll thank you in years to come."

He took my arm and drew me out upon the starlit prairie. "I can't sleep to-night, and my horse is lame. You will lend me one," he said. Then when I asked whether he was not going with Dixon to the station, he laughed, and flung back his head.

"I'm going to spend all night in the saddle. It will be best for me," he said. "I'll tell you the whole story later, and, meantime, may say that over the sea, yonder, somebody is dead. I know what usually sends such men as I out here, but while I should like you to remember that I neither broke any law of the old country nor injured any woman, I wouldn't see which side my bread was b.u.t.tered--and there are various ways of playing the fool."

"We have Mackay's a.s.surance that the Colonial cure has proved a success, and in all seriousness you have my best wishes for the future," I said.

The corporal answered gravely: "If it had not I should never venture to visit Bonaventure to-morrow, as I intend doing."

"Visit Bonaventure?" I said, a little thickly.

"Of course!" said Cotton, with both exultation and surprise in his tone.

"Can't you see the best this news may have made possible to me?"

I was thankful that the kindly darkness hid my face, and turned towards the stables without a word; while, after the corporal had mounted, I found it very hard to answer him when he said simply, yet with a great air of friendship: "Although you were irritating sometimes, Ormesby, you were the first man I ever spoke frankly to in this country. Won't you wish me luck?"

"If she will have you, there is no good thing I would not wish for you both," I said; but in spite of my efforts my voice rang hollow, and I was thankful when Cotton, who did not seem to notice it, rode away.

I did not return to the house until long after the drumming of hoofs, growing fainter and fainter, had finally died away, and said little then. I even flung the journals Dixon brought, which were full of the new railroad, unread, away. My rival was young and handsome, generous, and likable, even in his weaknesses. He was also, as it now appeared, of good estate and birth, and granting all that I could on my own side, the odds seemed heavily in favor of Cotton, while a certain knowledge of the worst would almost have been preferable to the harrowing uncertainty as to how the Mistress of Bonaventure would make the comparison. It lasted for two whole weeks--weeks which I never forgot; for I could not visit Bonaventure until I learned whether Cotton's errand had resulted successfully, and he sent no word to lessen the anxiety.

At last I rode in to the settlement, whither I knew Haldane had gone to inspect the progress of the road, and met Boone and Mackay on the prairie. "Has Cotton returned?" I asked.

"He has," said Mackay dryly. "This is his last day's duty. He loitered at the settlement, and ye will meet him presently. I'm not understanding what is wrong with him, but he's uncertain in the temper, and I'm thinking that sudden good fortune does not agree with him."

I met Cotton, riding very slowly and looking straight ahead. He pulled up when I greeted him, and seeing the question in my eyes, ruefully shook his head. "I've had my answer, Ormesby--given with a gentleness that made it worse," he said.

He must have misunderstood my expression, and perhaps my face was a study just then, for he added grimly: "It is perfectly true, and really not surprising. Hopeless from the first--and, I think, there is someone else, though heaven knows where in the whole Dominion she would find any man fit to brush the dust from her little shoes, including myself. Well, there is no use repining, and I'll have years in which to get over it; but it's lucky I'm leaving this country, and--for one can't shirk a painful duty--I'll say good-by to you with the others at Bonaventure to-morrow."

I was glad that he immediately rode on, for while I pitied him, my heart leaped within me. Had it happened otherwise I should have tried to wish him well, and now my satisfaction, which was, nevertheless, stronger than all such considerations, appeared ungenerous.

When I reached it the usually sleepy settlement presented a stirring scene. Long strings of flat cars c.u.mbered the trebled sidetrack, rows of huts had risen as by magic, and two big locomotives moved ceaselessly to and fro. Dozens of oxen and horse teams hauled the great iron scoops which tore the sod up to form the roadbed, while the air vibrated with the thud of shovels, the ringing of hammers, and the clang of falling rails. The track lengthened yard by yard as I stood and watched. In another week or two the swarming toilers would have moved their mushroom town further on towards Crane Valley, and I was almost oppressed by a sense of what all this tremendous activity promised me. It meant at least prosperity instead of penury, the realizing of ambitions, perhaps a road to actual affluence; also it might be far more than this. I scarcely saw Haldane until he grasped my hand.

"It is a great day, Ormesby," he said. "No man can tell exactly how far this narrow steel road may carry all of you. Still, one might almost say that you have deserved it--and it has come at last."

"It will either be the brightest day in all my life--or the worst," I said. "Will you listen to me for two minutes, sir?"

Haldane did so, and then leaned against a flat car, with the wrinkles deepening on his forehead, for what appeared to be an inordinately long time. "I may tell you frankly that I had not antic.i.p.ated this--and am not sure I should not have tried to prevent it if I had," he said. "I know nothing that does not testify in your favor as an individual, Ormesby; but, as even you admit, there are objections from one point of view. Still, this road and our new schemes may do much for you and---- Well, I never refused my daughter anything, and if she approves of you, and you will not separate us altogether, I won't say no."