Part 19 (1/2)

By and by the light commenced to fade, but Eleanor's white dress still gleamed against the dull blue and crimson of the crossed flags; and in after-days, when there was anger between them, Jimmy liked to remember her sitting there at Jordan's side to speed him on the _Shasta_'s first voyage. She made a somewhat imposing figure in the little dusky cabin, and what she said struck the right note in the inauguration of that venture, for she was optimistic and forceful in speech and gesture--and Anthea now sat in the shadow.

At last old Leeson rose with a little dry chuckle. ”I don't know whether speeches are expected,” he said. ”Still, I guess there's one toast we ought to honor, and that's the engaged pair. Anyway, it's one that's especially fitting to-night, since it seems to me that if it hadn't been for Miss Wheelock we wouldn't have been here, with steam up, on board the _Shasta_.”

There was a little good-humored laughter, but Leeson, who appeared unconscious that his observations were open to misconception, proceeded calmly.

”Now,” he said, ”in a general way, the less women have to do with business the better; but in Miss Wheelock we have an exception. If it hadn't been for her, Forster would not have put five thousand dollars into the _Shasta_, and if he hadn't made the venture, it's quite likely I wouldn't either. It's quite a big one for people of our caliber, but we have a live man to run the thing, and he will have a wife as smart as he is standing right behind him. Well, we'll wish the pair of them long life and happiness.”

Jimmy rose with his companions, but he was conscious that Anthea was regarding his sister with grave inquiry. Then Jordan made his reply conventionally, and afterward stood still a moment looking at his guests, until with a little abrupt gesture he commenced again.

”Mr. Leeson's right: it is a big thing we have on hand,” he said. ”We're going to fight and break a monopoly, and, if all goes as we expect it, put money into our pockets. But in one way that's only half of it. I want you to think of the honest effort, the best thing a man has to offer, that is being wasted in this country. Can't you picture the bush-ranchers hauling produce thirty miles over a trail a city man wouldn't ride a horse along to the railroad, and watching fruit 'most as good as we can raise in California rotting by the ton? I want you to think of the oat crops cut green and half-grown, and the men who raised them mending their clothes with flour-bags and measuring out their groceries by the cent's worth, after spending half a lifetime chopping out the ranch. It's wrong--clean against the economy of things. We want every pound of whatever they can send us. We have mines and mills and money, but in this Province our food is bad and dear. While every man depends on his neighbor, the greatest thing in civilization is facility of transport.”

He stopped a moment for breath, and the keen sparkle in his dark eyes grew plainer. ”Well, we're going to provide it, and do what we can for the men with the axe and the grub-hoe. Some day this great Province will remember what it owes them. Here it's man against nature, and the fight is hard, while we'll do more than put money in our pockets if we make it a little easier. We want a fair deal--and we'll get it somehow--but we want no more; and if we can hold on long enough, it won't be only those who sent her out who will say, 'Speed the _Shasta_!'”

He stopped amidst acclamation, for his mobile face and snapping eyes had amplified his words, and, while he handled his theme clumsily, there was, at least, no mistaking the strident ring of the dominant note in it. In that country it was, for the most part, man against nature, and not man against man, and the recognition of the fact was in all who heard him. There men wrung their money from rocky hillside and shadowy forest with toil almost incredible, creating wealth, and not filching it from their fellows; but nature is grim and somewhat terrible in the land of rock and snow, and all down the great Slope, from Wrangel to Shasta, the battle is a stern and arduous one. So there was a little kindling in the listeners' eyes, and the women also raised their gla.s.ses high as they said, ”Speed the _Shasta_,” knowing that this was in reality but a part of what they felt.

Then Eleanor rose, and the company, scattering for the most part, went back on deck, where it once more happened by some means that Anthea Merril and Jimmy found themselves some distance from any of the rest.

The girl looked up at him with a little smile.

”Well,” she said, ”what did you think of Mr. Jordan's observations?”

Jimmy laughed. ”My opinion wouldn't count. I couldn't make a speech for my life.”

”No?” said Anthea. ”Still, you can hold a steamer's wheel, and perhaps under the circ.u.mstances that is quite as much to the purpose. In any case, while your comrade was a little flamboyant, which is much the same thing as Western, I think he meant it. After all, if we parade our sentiments, we generally act up to them.”

”Jordan,” said Jimmy, ”seems to have quite a stock of them.”

”And I understand he has put every dollar he has into the venture.

Still, I suppose he did it cheerfully; and you may find it necessary to bring those bush-ranchers' produce down against a gale of wind.”

There was a smile in her eyes as she looked at him, but in spite of that Jimmy felt his face grow slightly warm. It was not, however, altogether because Anthea noticed it that she changed the subject.

”There was one point that wasn't quite clear to me. Why did he say you were going to break up a monopoly?”

Jimmy wished she had asked him anything else, for he had already decided that Miss Merril knew very little about her father's business.

”Well,” he said awkwardly, ”that's rather a difficult thing to answer.

You see, he mentioned a monopoly----”

”He certainly did.”

”Then, to begin with, there is the Dunsmore road. They naturally couldn't handle produce as cheaply as we could, and, anyway, it isn't of much benefit to the ranchers who can't get at it.”

”'To begin with?' That implies more than one, which is, one would fancy, the essential point of a monopoly.”

”Perhaps it is,” said Jimmy vaguely. ”Still, when we get our hand in, there will be three.”

Anthea may have had her reasons for not pressing the question then, for she laughed. ”Of course!” she said. ”Three monopolies. Well, I suppose one must excuse you. You can hold a steamer's wheel.”

Jimmy, on the whole, felt relieved when the others sauntered in their direction, and was less grieved than he might have been under different circ.u.mstances when Austerly drew Miss Merril away. He had felt once or twice before, during discussions with his sister, that keen intelligence is not invariably a commendable thing in a woman. After that, Jordan had a good many instructions to give him, and by the time they had been imparted the rest were cl.u.s.tering around the gangway; while five minutes later Jimmy leaned on the rail watching the boats slide away toward the dusky city. Then he climbed to his bridge, and the windla.s.s commenced to rattle, but he did not know that Anthea Merril, who heard his farewell whistle, kept the others waiting on the wharf a moment or two while she watched the _Shasta_ slowly steam out to sea.